I saw “STEP”, Yesterday. It is the amazing movie of these beautiful, young women, struggling and striving to do their best in an adverse inner city environment. The art of Stepping has its roots in Africa, brought to this country by African slaves. It is making music with your body; stomping, slapping, clapping and expressing yourself with movement in a group/team. The movie follows the girls who decided to start a step team and compete. The goal of this charter school, Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women, is to have 100% of the senior girls be admitted to college. This first class did it and are now attending colleges around the country! It shows how the art of music & dance, being part of a team, and discipline can motivate and propel each individual in the group to greater good than they may have otherwise been capable of achieving.
The film was released at Sundance this past January and the girls all raised the funds to come to Park City to be here to support their work. Neighborhood friends housed, fed and entertained them for the week they were here. Some of them had never been out of Baltimore, let alone been on an airplane to anywhere.
This documentary is to be released in several cities in the near future and will be on the Sundance movie channel eventually I imagine. Stay tuned, I am trying to find out the dates and cities that will be showing this incredible film.