Step (2017)

[StevePulaski]

Step (2017)
Directed by: Amanda Lipitz

Tayla Solomon and the rest of the "Lethal Ladies" in Step.

Rating: ★★½

Amanda Lipitz's documentary Step revolves around a group of "steppers" known as the "Lethal Ladies of Baltimore." The team represents the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, a public charter school that specializes in college preparatory curriculum for African-American teens in the greater Baltimore area. Many of its students would be first-generation college students if accepted to two or four year schools, and by focusing on three steppers, Lipitz crafts a small but enjoyable film that I feel a great deal of people have been wanting for quite some time.

The film's primary subject is Blessin Giraldo, the founder/captain of the Lethal Ladies. She has a commanding energy, a great voice, and the instantly evident agility and fluency in her body movements to make it no surprise to anyone why she leads a group of young ladies. Under the guide of their coach Gari ("Coach G"), Blessin works to perfect her choreography as well as make significant strides in improving her abysmal 1.1 GPA in time to apply to colleges. Alongside her is Cori, who, in contrast, has a great GPA, but comes from a low-income family with five siblings and stepdad who has recently been laid off. She and her counselor foresee her as someone who, once accepted to college, will be reliant on generous grants and low-interest loans in order to pay for school, yet another magnifier in the disgracefully expensive and often unobtainable luxury college has become in America.

Finally, there's Tayla, a dedicated stepper, whose grades have slipped up recently after spending more time with a boy. Of the three young ladies, she gets the least amount of screentime, but represents another relatable soul in a school with more than enough colorful characters any documentary would struggle to adequately portray.

It might be a surprise to some that stepping and the step team — as anything other than a comprehensive unit and an extra-curricular activity — come secondary to the lives of Blessin, Cori, and Tayla, clearly a deliberate choice on Lipitz's behalf. Getting the students of the Baltimore Leadership School on the right path post-high school is just as important to Coach G as well as the guidance counselors as their progress with the Lethal Ladies. In some ways, Lipitz manages to capture how the two go hand-in-hand, with one moment in particular showing the girls practice their "walk thru" at a national step competition being a quietly moving sequence that shows just how they get the confidence and power as individuals while working for the greater good of a collective.

Where Step stumbles more than stomps is in with its editing, which renders the film a flimsily constructed movie with several loose-ends (Tayla's boyfriend, Cori's stepdad losing his job) never coming together into an all-encompassing whole. At 80 minutes, it just barely gives you the essence of these individuals despite having Hoop Dreams, so to speak, of giving you a look at the step team and the girls' academic and personal lives. We never get the idea of how stepping helps these girls in their lives other than the fact it serves as a hobby for them all. Outside of Blessin's mother, we also never truly understand the family dynamics of the ones we are fortunate enough to meet. Blessin stands out for many reasons in the film, mainly because of her mostly positive energy until she reaches a breaking point, but part of it is because she's the one with whom we spend the most time. These are all things that are not unreasonable to expect out of a film like this.

It's worth noting, although the film might not see it as imperative, that Lipitz's mother is the founder of the Baltimore Leadership School. Although nepotism isn't one of the documentary's issues, knowing this tidbit of information at least informs the viewer of the underlying desire to keep the look and tone of the school so squeaky clean and positive, as well as the school's main resources for students. I realize for many, issues of editing and a director's connection to the setting of this documentary won't be of any relevance, but in regards to my role of telling you whether Step deserves your time and money, it's important not to give a film a pass on certain issues just because it is the kind of earnest movie we need in this day and age. It's just not the best example of what exactly we need in terms of being a strong work on all fronts.

Directed by: Amanda Lipitz.