Local lands her first movie role

By Meg Olson

Point Roberts resident Maude Green landed her first film role in “Center Stage: On Pointe,” which will premiere Saturday, June 25 on Lifetime TV in Canada and the U.S.

“Center Stage: On Pointe” is the second sequel to the 2000 teen drama and dance film “Center Stage,” about a group of young dancers competing for spots in a prestigious dance academy. Green plays the role of Allegra, an introverted classically trained dancer who learns trust through her friendship with Bella, the main character of the movie.

Though Green herself is certainly not introverted, she is a classically trained dancer who has studied and performed with the Southern New Hampshire Dance Theater, Brookline Ballet School in Boston as well as summer programs at Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA, and Canada’s National Ballet in Toronto.

At 14 years of age, she moved to New York City to train at the Joffrey Ballet School. Living in New York inspired an interest in acting she pursued through HB Studio’s Hagen Institute and private training with Joan Rosenfels.

Green enrolled in South Delta Secondary as a junior to finish high school and stepped back from her dance career. There she performed the role of Elle Woods in the Equinox Theatre’s production of “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” under the direction of Richard Ian Cox, who connected her with his agents in Vancouver.

“The ‘Center Stage: On Pointe’ audition was my first in-person audition,” Green said. “A week after I got the role we were filming already and we didn’t stop.” The opportunity to work with veteran dancers from the cast of the original movie had her a bit star struck to start with. “I’ve grown up watching them dance not only in the movie but throughout their dance careers. It was very, very exciting.”

Green, 18, graduated from high school this year and is already filming another movie. “Center Stage was an amazing first movie because I got to dance,” she said. “For most of my life I wanted to be a professional dancer and now I am.” In her current movie, “Status Update,” Green is only acting, and she sees acting as her primary career going forward, “But dance is something very difficult for you to lose,” she said, and she’s ready to start studying dance again, “For me!”

“Center Stage: On Pointe” premieres this Saturday, June 25, at 8 p.m. PST on Lifetime TV.