The two movies, Step Up and Save the Last Dance, have many things in contrast and in comparison to the other. In Step up, a girl named Sarah Johnson, a promising dancer in high school hoping to be admitted to study at Julliard School. She fails the audition and soon thereafter learns that her mother has been involved in a fatal car accident trying to get to her audition. After her mother’s death, Sara is wracked by built and gives up on ballet. She moves in with her father whom she doesn’t know well, transferring to an urban Chicago school. At her new school she finds that she is one of a handful of white people but quickly friendship flames up between her and a single mom named Chenille. Chenille invites Sara to a dance club called Stepps where she experiences dancing to hip-hop for the first time. While at Stepps, Sara meets Derek, Chenille’s brother and a student with dreams of attending Georgetown Medical School. Upon meeting and seeing each other at school, Derek decides to help Sara develop her dancing skills by incorporating more hip-hip into her ballet style. As they become closer, Derek takes her to a ballet and afterwards Sara confides in him about her mother and her dreams she tossed away. After, Derek convinces her that she needs to do what she wants and follow her dreams of Julliard. Sara auditions for Julliard for the second time, Derek arriving at a crucial point to offer encouragement and support. Sara was finally accepted into Julliard, and to celebrate Sara’s successful audition, they go dancing at the club Stepps.
In Save the Last Dance, Tyler Gage was sentenced to 200 hours of community service for breaking into and vandalizing Maryland School of Arts. His community service is to be served at the school and notices as he peers into a dance class a girl named Nora Clark, whom was preparing for her “senior showcase,” an audition which could determine whether or not she is offered a job