<Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $131.7 million </Td> </Tr> <P> Save the Last Dance is a 2001 American teen 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> <P> Sara is wracked by guilt and gives up on ballet . She moves in with her father and transfers to an urban Chicago school . Her father is a jazz musician who plays the trumpet and usually plays in nightclubs . At her new school, Sara is one of a handful of white students but quickly befriends Chenille, a single teen mother who is having relationship problems . Chenille invites Sara to a dance club called STEPPS, where she has her first experience of dancing to hip hop rhythms . At STEPPS, Sara dances with Derek, Chenille's brother and a student with dreams of ultimately attending Georgetown Medical School . He decides to help Sara develop her dancing skills by incorporating more hip hop into her style . Derek takes a reluctant Sara to the Joffrey Ballet and, afterwards, Sara confides in him about her mother and her dreams . Later, they return to the club and amaze others with their dancing . Having achieved his dream of being accepted at Georgetown University, Derek convinces her to follow her dreams of Juilliard . Eventually, Sara and Derek begin a relationship . </P>

Where does save the last dance take place