Step Review: What A Squad Can Do

Look, I love stepping. I love the sound of it, the energy. I almost picked the sorority to pledge to in College based on who had the best step line (I didn’t end up pledging, so don’t ask). In my book, stepping is on the Top 10 Blackest Activities list, right up there with Making a Way Out of No Way and Dapping. So when I saw this trailer go through my feed the other day, I knew I had to see the movie.

I called up two of my girls, grabbed a pack of tissues, and settled in. I mean that: bring girlfriends and tissues because this movie will have you all the way in your feelings. We cried both happy and sad tears, but we definitely cried. Why?

This movie is real. STEP follows the Lethal Ladies Of BLSYW — the step dancing team from the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women through a crucial year in the development of the team, and of the girls that are on it. BLSYW is “a college preparatory school with an emphasis on leadership and academic excellence and enrichment in a single sex environment.” The school was founded in 2009 with one goal — for all of the girls to complete both high school and college. This documentary follows the members of the step team who are members of the first senior class, the first girls to come out through BLSYW and go on to college. Three girls form the center of the story: Blessin, central to the energy and action of the film, is a founding member of the step squad and is now a senior ready to graduate, except she’s not: she missed half of …