Since You Got Served, the Denigrational Instruction Society (DIS) has seen fit to give us at least dozen movies about team dance competitions and nary a one of them has made me wish to explore the topic any further than the movie screen. Director Amanda Lipitz decided on a genre take I hadn’t seen before: why not explore the world of real life competitive dance team rather than “actors” paid to issue an athletically-inclined summons. Hey, that might change things.
The Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women (BLSYW) states a goal of college degree achievement for all of its students. This is one Hell of a goal, especially when it comes partnered with the truth that school stops at 12th grade and provides no financial help, college-wise. The fact that school student body is almost entirely comprised of a group of young women society pays so little attention to makes the promise all the harder to keep. And buried within the milieu of internally high expectations contrasting with societal low expectations is one simple commonality — these girls love to dance.
Step explores three lives above all others:
Cori vies for class valedictorian. How she maintains a near perfect GPA given her life is a mystery – five siblings and parents all in a cramped apartment. Oh, and her step-father just lost his job. Good thing college isn’t expensive.
Tayla is the kid constantly embarrassed by parents. Her mom is single, so she has to encroach for two which she handles deftly; her night job as a police officer doesn’t stop her from sitting through every Step rehearsal and occasionally making sure she has the full attention of the group with vociferous displays or personal direction. Tayla can’t move far enough away for college.
Blessin, not “Blessing” or even “Blessin’,” started the group years ago, but was booted off the team for poor grades in the interim. As erratic as the film’s sketchy cinematography, Blessin literally changes her look every five minutes of screen time; good gravy, girl, how many wigs do you own? Bessin is a one-woman soap opera, capable of sporting a 1.1 cumulative GPA, getting on the honor roll, and then sliding back down all in one semester. She’s capable of leading the team to greatness and getting into a catfight is the span of one session. Getting her into college is going to be a battle, isn’t it?
The best part of Step is the dance becomes completely secondary to the college hunt. After a particularly emotional higher institution themed frenzy, I actually had to remember, “oh, yeah. 
There’s still a dance competition in this movie.” Now, truth be told, I have not been a fan of the 21st Century team dance pissing contests. Most of these movies make me wonder why the participants don’t just carry weapons. If your hatred is so palpable that satisfaction is never achieved despite a successful performance, you might think about another profession … or therapy, lots and lots of therapy. These films tell me that team dance is entirely about posturing; it’s about humiliating your opponent and then leaving the stage in romantic triumph.
Step didn’t dismiss the posturing angle; in fact the girls took a field trip to enjoy a seminar on pre-game and performance attitude. What I didn’t get from previous Step-themed films Is that the attitude is not about dominating an opponent, but about self-respect. To the ladies of BLSYW, there is passion derived from knowing society doesn’t care about you, that society wants to see you fail, that Freddie Gray is part of your everyday legacy. As a result, their art is more passionate, more precise, more forceful. From most of the (suburb) artists I have observed, their performances do not reflect the same drive. Before this film, I never considered wanting to see a live Step team performance competition. Now, I think I’m missing out.
The inner city is what these dancers call home-a
Where justice is rarer than a coma
If they’re not the best
These ladies won’t rest
Until they got served a diploma
Rated PG, 83 Minutes
Director: Amanda Lipitz
Writer: Life
Genre: Kids you’d otherwise ignore
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: BLSYW
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: White privilege deniers
