Movie Review: Step

To the “lethal ladies” of the Baltimore Young Women’s Leadership School “step is life.” The dance’s rhythmic series of chants, claps, and stomps helps channel aggression in a city ripped by turmoil or it can be a positive outlet for female empowerment. It’s all showcased in Amanda Lipitz’s inspiring documentary Step. The typical “year in the life” route is infused with an aggressive pulse that the young women featured drive home. With a beating heart as strong as the women’s dance moves, Step is a vital documentary that shows the true strength of womanhood today.

Step documents a group of senior years attending the Baltimore Young Women’s Leadership School as they navigate personal struggles, achieve academic goals, and aspire to win the national step competition.

Capturing the girls on film since they were in 6th grade, Amanda Lipitz’s camera feels like a warm friend around the young women at Step’s center. The film treads a familiar path, but what’s new and unique are the women whose lives are captured on-camera.

Your knowledge of step dancing is unimportant. It’s easily summed up by the film’s narrative focal point, Blessin Giraldo as “We’re making music with our bodies. That’s some slick stuff.” The school’s step team has a typical underdog story – they didn’t win anything the year before, and with many of the seniors graduating this is their last chance to make an impact. They hope to turn things around with the help of new coach Gari McIntyre, otherwise known as “Coach G,” a first generation college student herself. Lipitz says she was inspired by Fame and it’s hard not to see Coach G as a Debbie Allen-esque character, giving the girls a dressing down when they aren’t focused and always there to provide support, encouragement or discipline.

The beautiful step routines show an in-your-face fluidity; they’re both highly choreographed and fueled by the girls’ own inner rage. Much of this aggression comes from the city of Baltimore itself, still reeling after the death of Freddie Gray and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The girls are incredibly intelligent and politically minded, even discussing which Civil Rights Movement they’d have joined back in the ’60s. Their competition dance, influenced by the Black Panthers, is a blistering indictment that holds as much power now as it did a year ago. The competition sequences are the film’s highlight, captured with a combination of Broadway showiness and gritty realism. Between the highly enthusiastic audience and the pulse-pounding young women, it’ll be hard not to want to stomp along.

Step’s female empowerment is impossible to ignore and makes it one of the most feminist films of the year! Blessin, Cori Grainger and Tayla Solomon are the ones who receive the majority of screentime, but theirs is only one of countless stories worth telling within the team. As one of the girl’s says during the competition, “If you mess with my sisters, you mess with me” and you believe it! Each woman has a voice and personality that’s discernible and engaging, from the girls on the team to Coach G and guidance counselor Paula Dofat. The school is raising tomorrow’s leaders, and everyone supports everyone else. Even the girls’ mothers, for all their flaws, are active participants in their daughters’ education. Solomon’s mother, a corrections officer who harbors an unspoken conflict with the animosity in the wake of Gray’s murder, provides a unique bridge between the communities’ issues and the schools.

It’s easy to deduce why Giraldo, Grainger and Solomon are the film’s focus. Their stories are compelling and clearly drawn. Giraldo is frustrating and indecisive when it comes to planning for college but one of the strongest dancers. Outspoken and beautiful it’s hard to see her resistance to moving forward but understandable considering her fractured home life. Grainger is the film’s brain; a serious student with dreams of attending Johns Hopkins, while Solomon seems the least defined if only because her mother is more fascinating. The girls are shy about discussing their issues at home, whether it be a lack of food in the house or no electricity. Hearing their shame at being poor is hard to bear, especially in a world where help is equally condemned. The film’s ending is a foregone conclusion but hoping for these girls to graduate sets up the best stakes.

Step is a powerful, must-see documentary that combines the raw intensity of a stellar documentary with the fierce dance of the best movie musical.