HOW SHE MOVE

Canada, 2007, 92 minutes, Colour.
Rutina Wesley, Dwain Murphy, Tre Armstrong.
Directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid.

Sometimes film reviewers become more expert in areas that they don’t necessarily aspire to. It’s just that they see so many films. How She Move is a case in point. In recent years we have seen Step Up, Step Up 2: the Streets and Stomp the Yard. We know something about ‘Stepping’, a kind of stomping, athletic style of dance movement that has become something of a visual version of rap, with ‘crews’ and ‘teams’ from the streets vying with each other. It can sometimes be a new type of artistic gang competitiveness, if not warfare.

Set in Toronto, this variation on the theme (much the same plots with plenty of energetic step scenes) focuses on a young woman who has high hopes and good results for going to medical school. She has been able to get out of the neighbourhood. However, her older sister dies of an overdose and the family money for her course is used up. She tries for a supplementary exam for a scholarship but, in the meantime, gets caught up in ‘stepping’ with the possibility of winning the $50,000 competition prize money. Along the way, there are plenty of dramatics, hostility from friends, rivalries in the crews, pressure from her mother.

Rutina Wesley gives it all she’s got for another morale-boosting story for people to have more self-confidence and benefit by their talents.

1.The popularity of dance films? This variation on the themes? The down-and-out, the opportunities, the competitions, the clashes, romance?

2.The Canadian settings, the city, the poverty, the streets, homes, schools? Authentic atmosphere?

3.The music, performance, dance? The choreography? The step-dancing?

4.The focus on Raya, her being in a private school, her mother and the difficulties of keeping her there? The father moving in and out of the family? The background of her older sister, the dance training? Her sister’s death, the drug overdose? The funeral? The family’s lack of finance?

5.At home in Toronto? The memories of her growing up? Meeting her friends, the criticism, Michelle? The fact that she went to a private school? At home, with her mother, the family?

6.Bishop, the leader of the step-dancing group? All males? Their performance? Michelle, Raya, trying to get Bishop’s attention? The various devices for his concern about them? His interest in Raya?

7.Michelle, her personality, the challenge to Raya, the dance-off? The choreography – and it culminating in the fight? The school principal?

8.Raya, tutoring Michelle? The deal between the two of them? Her wanting to study, the scholarship exam? Her hopes for going back to school? The failure of the exam according to Raya?

9.Raya, the discussions with Bishop, her joining the group, the rehearsals, the reaction of the other members of the group? The heat, her not following the routine, Bishop and his anger, her being dismissed from the group?

10.The rival group, Raya and her going to them, their accepting her? Michelle and her change of heart? Raya being accepted by the group?

11.Raya’s mother, discovering what had happened, coming to Detroit, wanting her to go out of the competition? The fact that she did well in the exam, the scholarship?

12.The dance final, the spectacular dancing, the victory? The celebrations?

13.The happy ending, Bishop and Raya, her mother happy? Her father returning home?

14.The popular ingredients – the familiar ingredients? Enhanced by the dancing?