Izabella Miko gives an uplifting and memorable performance in Save The Last Dance 2, a straight-to-DVD sequel. Miko, taking over the role originally played by Julia Stiles, is Sara Johnson, who thought her audition to earn a spot in Juilliard’s prestigious dance program was one of the hardest situations she ever faced. However, that was before she arrived at Juilliard and found herself surrounded by instructors who demand perfection and constantly push students to the breaking point.

Monique Delacroix (Jacqueline Bisset), Sara’s ballet instructor, is a tough no-nonsense individual who does not listen to excuses or apologies. She also refuses to tolerate tardiness. Instead of caring about the aspirations of her students, she's concerned only with upholding her reputation as one of the world's renowned ballet instructors. 

At the start of each week, Delacroix weeds out students who are weak as well as those who lack drive. She places students into three different groups. The first group consists of those she views as the best dancers in the class; the second contains the ones who show promise; and the third includes the weakest dancers or those who lack focus, drive and toughness.  Students who spend five consecutive weeks in the third group are kicked out of the program.

Miles Sultana (Columbus Short), a teaching assistant at Julliard, finds himself thrust into taking over an introductory class on hip-hop theory when the original professor is injured. After his first class, Sara and roommate Zoe (Aubrey Dollar) chat with him, and he  invites them to a nightclub where he's the DJ that evening. The next morning, Sara shows up late for Delacroix’s early morning class, provoking her ire for smelling like booze. The strict instructor demotes Sara to the second group.

Although Sara tries hard to stay afloat in her classes, she finds it impossible to duck Miles who always wants to chat or go somewhere after hours. Because he was blown away by Sara's freestyle dance movies at the club, Miles will not leave Sara alone about choreographing a dance piece for the opening of a street and graffiti art exhibit.

As her studies start to take a backseat to her social life Sara must ask herself if her priorities have changed. Does she want to remain at Juilliard? Is her goal still to be a professional dancer?

Miko's own experiences often mirror those of the character she plays here. Like Sara, she had a lifelong dream of becoming a professional ballerina. She never auditioned for Julliard, but she did try out for Poland's National Ballet School three times before being accepted. After working hard on her own each day of the week, she auditioned a fourth time and earned a spot at the prestigious school.When Miko turned 15, she became a student at New York City’s School of Ballet where she studied for two years before a series of injuries destroyed her chance at a dance career. Fortunately, after being cast in a silent film in Poland, the distraught Miko became an actress and found herself in love with the profession.

In addition to Miko's strong lead performance, Bisset and Columbus offer solid supporting turns in Save the Last Dance 2. I also applaud director David Petrarca for delivering such a surprisingly entertaining sequel. 

(Released by Paramount Home Video and rated "PG-13" by MPAA.)