The Story: Sara (Julia) is a small town girl with a big dream - to become a world class ballerina. But when her mother suddenly dies, Sara must abandon her plans and join her estranged father on Chicago's gritty south side. A white girl in a predominately black neighbourhood, Sara feels out of place - until she is befriended by a black classmate, Chenille (Washington), and her handsome brother Derek (Thomas). Sparks fly between Sara and Derek, whose shared love for dance leads to romance. But as Sara and Derek's relationship grows, so does opposition from their families and friends. Now Sara and Derek face the biggest challenge of their young lives - to stay true to their dreams....and each other.  
�I love to dance, I love to go to clubs. I'll dance in my room, imitating hip-hop videos." "At first, I thought I should just quit - I didn't know what I'd gotten into. But I definitely surprised myself." On learning hip-hop "I didn't expect it to be so hard. I've neer felt more white in my life." "We had to do a combination across the floor, and they put me with a principal from the Joffrey Ballet, which made me look worse!"
Did You Know? Julia has taken modern dance lessons since she was a child, but took a crash course in ballet and hip-hop and practiced until her toes bled. She did all of the hip-hop dancing in the film, and most of the ballet - except for a few close-ups of the feet, which were done by a double. The dancing whilst the credits are running at the end of the movie was filmed during the last night of shooting. The cast and crew danced for hours together. Save The Last Dance was the first teen inter-racial love story to hit No.1 on the box-office charts in the US. Julia won the 2001 MTV Award for Best Kiss with Sean Patrick Thomas She also won the 2001 Teen Choice Awards for Choice Actress as well as Choice Fight Scene (with Bianca Lawson who plays Nikki) 'Steppes' nightclub was actually Chicago's Crobar nightclub, which was well known as a hangout of Dennis Rodman when he was with the Chicago Bulls Filming took place between November 1999 and February 2000
Visit the flashy Official Save The Last Dance site here where you can view the trailer |
