<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $13 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $131.7 million </Td> </Tr> <P> Save the Last Dance is a 2001 American dance film produced by MTV Productions, directed by Thomas Carter and released by Paramount Pictures on January 12, 2001 . The film stars Julia Stiles and Sean Patrick Thomas as a teenage interracial couple in Chicago who work together to help the main character, played by Stiles, train for a dance audition . A direct - to - video sequel, Save the Last Dance 2, was released in 2006 . </P> <P> Sara Johnson, a promising dancer in high school in suburban Chicago, hopes to be admitted to study at Juilliard School and invites her mother to attend the audition . She fails the audition and soon learns that her mother was involved in a fatal car accident in her haste to get to the audition . </P>

Where did save the last dance take place