Continuing the story of the original film, Sara (Izabella Miko) follows her dream and becomes a student at Juilliard. As she is excels and becomes a star pupil, Sara becomes torn between her love for traditional ballet and her passion for the urban street rhythms of hip-hop, complicated further by her new love, hip-hop musician Miles (Columbus Short). When pushed to make a choice, will she follow the path of the tried and true or will she take a risk and dance into uncharted territory?

I absolutely loved this movie. I didn’t think I would, being that it was a low budget sequel and none of the original characters from the first movie were even in it, however the director filled all the holes with an interesting plot that is strong enough to stand on it’s own. You can actually watch this movie without having even seen the first one…there was a short scene that had enough background information to build up the main character Sara. The movie picks up a few months after the first one left off, with Sara moving to Juilliard to study ballet and become a prima ballerina.

The dance scenes were HOT! There is so much music and dancing here from classical ballet to urban hip hop dance. Sara danced her ass off! She rocked both types of dance hardcore, I found myself actually believing that Isabella Miko could succeed in true life in both. Music flowed through the whole movie with a beautiful tapestry of hip hop woven into every prominent scene. The intergration of ballet with hip hop was amazing---a fusion of moves that I never would have expected. The conflicts between the characters were predictable enough, however there was a plot twist that left me actually surprised.

The main characters were pretty well-developed and secondary characters had enough color to bring something more to the film. Ne-Yo had a small role (thankfully he didn’t ruin it.) Her roomie is a riot! There were some moments in the movie that were contrived/destroyed by bad acting but overall the actors pretty much nailed their parts. Miles’ apartment was off the chain, I want that apartment!

The extra stuff in the DVD was pretty tight too. There’s an interview with the actors/principals I found out that filming was done in 21 days…21 days people! Considering everything that was done, they did an amazing job. If you are a fan of the original, or movies like Take the Lead, Honey or Step Up, then this is another one for you. The DVD came out October 10 so snag a copy!