Dancing, not story, shines in 'How She Move'
Though the screenplay isn't bad, infectious beats and superb footwork are what drive the movie.
By Steve Persall, Times Film Critic
Published January 24, 2008
How She Move
Grade: B-
Director: Ian Iqbal Rashid
Cast: Rutina Wesley, Tre Armstrong, Dwain Murphy, Kevin Duhaney, Melanie Nicholls-King, Conrad Coates
Screenplay: Annmarie Morais
Rating: PG-13; profanity, suggestive dance moves, brief drug content
Running time: 98 min.
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Step dancing isn't only a black college thing, as last year's sleeper Stomp the Yard dramatized. The art form's verve seeps into street life, with young dancers making kinetic personal expressions.
How She Move could be considered an unofficial prequel to Stomp the Yard since its heroine Raya Green (Rutina Wesley) uses step dancing as a means to attend college. Raya is a bright private school student, making her an outcast in a hard-knocks neighborhood that claimed her sister's life.
Raya has the grades but not the money to make her dreams happen. Winning a "step comp" - a hip-hop dance contest among blazingly choreographed crews - would provide a nice tuition boost.
Raya gave up the life when her sister died of an overdose. Her protective mother (Melanie Nicholls-King) and underachieving father (Conrad Coates) want her to be studying. Former step-dancing partners like Michelle (Tre Armstrong) resent Raya's efforts to make a better life.
How She Move contains the usual underdog elements, yet director Ian Iqbal Rashid lays out obviousness with persuasive grit. It helps having a cast of dancers who can act - especially Wesley, who can be achingly sympathetic, then explosively agile in a flash. Annmarie Morais' screenplay hastily swaps Raya's allegiances to give Wesley a steady supply of angry and apologetic scenes between dance numbers.
Like Stomp the Yard, the step-dancing exhibitions (choreographed by Hi-Hat) make everything else tolerable. The self-made percussion of stamping boots and slapping hands among dancers is infectious; the acrobatic bravado and use of bombastic props such as bling hubcap wheels is ingenious.
I'd enjoy a documentary on this subject matching David LaChapelle's 2005 film Rize that chronicled krump dancing's urban culture. Both step dancing and the more improvisational krumping are rooted in African-American history, and revived by today's young, culturally diverse artists to a modern backbeat. How they move is who they are.
Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com. Read his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/movies.