“Beloved, it’s date night so I’ve booked tickets to a documentary about female and black empowerment through education and dance.” It is an absolute treat being married to me.
Step is the story of the Baltimore Leadership School For Young Women that was founded with the goal of getting all of the students to graduate into college education. The girls started a step team and the film follows the team members through the schools first senior year as they try for team glory and to cope with the hell that the American college system seems to be.
These girls do not have easy lives. They are living in an inner-city which was coping with the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s murder. They are living with poverty, mental health issues and racism. What they have is talent, drive and a community around them willing them to succeed. They make mistakes, get distracted, don’t do well enough but they are teenagers and you are with them all the way.
The step routines are heart pounding to watch. There is fire in these women. You are willing them on as they put in their college applications. I have no clue what the American system is but it seems designed to kill your spirit and take your money. Ms Dofat, who guided, cajoled and dragged them through it, is a heroine.
You can take so much from this film whether that it is the importance of education, having a passion, the horror of inequality and the need to say that black lives matter but that’s not what got me the fizziest.
These are phenomenal women. These girls are working together, pushing each other on, supporting each other, they are being raised by women who expect the best from them, they are being taught and mentored by demanding women. You see them getting each other ready, shopping, working, laughing, crying and celebrating together. They are women I recognise from my life, I know these women. You don’t usually see these women on screen. You do now.