arts&life
1 PHOTO BY JEFF VESPA
film
Step
Is
Life
That’s the mantra for
the girls in Amanda
Lipitz’s new fi lm.
TOP: Tayla Solomon, Cori Grainger and Blessing Giraldo at Sundance Film Festival.
OPPOSITE: The Lethal Ladies of BLSYW.
38
August 10 • 2017
jn
SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A
manda Lipitz explains that the first
feature film she has directed and
produced — Step: A Real Life Story
— is not about Judaism, but it is about
Jewish values.
The documentary, opening Aug. 11 in
Metro Detroit, showcases an all-girls high
school in Baltimore where a step dance
team works together to win a champion-
ship and transfers energy and enthusiasm
from the activity into academic achieve-
ments.
The ultimate goal for all
team members is acceptance
into college.
“The film is entertaining
with a really deep and power-
ful message,” says Lipitz, 37,
named by Jewish Women
International as one of “10
Women to Watch” in 2008.
“It inspires people to get up
and make changes by helping
and mentoring, and I hope
young people take away [the
idea of] having a plan, a blue-
print, and sticking to that plan Amanda Lipitz
to achieve their dreams.
“Everything in the film would have hap-
pened whether I was there with a camera
or not. I learned that nothing is impossible
when you come together with a group of
powerful women.”
The film showcases the Lethal Ladies of
the BLSYW (Baltimore Leadership School
for Young Women) Step Team and the
staff members advising and encouraging
them. It takes place in their senior year.
Besides seeing the team
performing high-energy step
dancing, audiences will get to
know individual members and
their hurdles, often from fam-
ily or financial limitations.
Stepping is a tradition
emphasizing rhythmic and
percussive foot movements
with handclaps, call-and-
response motions, songs,
chants and propulsive musical
rhythms combined to become
a corporeal form of story-
telling. Shaped by African-
American history, it added