Headscratchers / Save the Last Dance

• There's suspension of disbelief, and then there's this movie — could it not afford a better dance double? Acceptance on the spot to a post-secondary dance program, especially one as rare as Julliard, is a best-of-the-best-of-the-best kind of thing. The dance double in the scene is fairly average, technically, can barely finish a double pirouette without hopping, delivered a sloppy aerial cartwheel and failed to show all that much superior technique. Obviously the movie isn't intended for a "dance" audience, but it's practically a parody at that point.
• On that note, it's natural to expect that Sarah has regressed a little from several months of no training, but Julia Stiles' dancing in the ballet class scene is that of someone who has almost never danced in her life — performing a low arabesque with a bend in the knee and a totally flat, sickled foot isn't something that happens when you take a few months off — it happens when you've never danced before.