Gritty urban dance movie sidesteps cliches
I had been prepared to be thoroughly underwhelmed by Ian Iqbal Rashid's Canadian dance contest film "How She Move."
Quickly, I realized this was no ordinary, cliched dance contest movie where one-dimensional teenagers hook their dreams on winning the big prize in the final scene.
"How She Move" doesn't exactly reinvent the dance contest genre, but it comes pumped with so much spunk and grit that it morphs into an urgent story of urban survival. In this world, dance gives meaning to people's lives, provides a creative outlet for them and, for at least one (a young woman named Raya Green), supplies a passport to a better life.
Like last year's similarly themed dance movie "Stomp the Yard," Rashid's "How She Move" has a main character whose sibling dies by drugs. Raya (Rutina Wesley), a product of a poor Jamaican neighborhood in Toronto, has been forced to leave a private school after her parents poured all their money into trying to save her sister.
Raya returns to her old public school stomping grounds, a poisoned atmosphere where drugs and sex trump self-esteem and accomplishment. Raya faces scorn from old classmates, especially her rival Michelle (Tre Armstrong), who accuses Raya of thinking herself too good to be in a public school.
Raya, a pensive, sad young woman, pins her future on getting a scholarship. But her scholastic test goes badly, and she realizes she has no options. Except one.
Raya is a skilled step dancer. She also has major anger issues. The combination creates combustion on stage, and Raya parlays her abilities into an invitation to join Michelle's all-girl step team. Then, Raya realizes that male teams win the contests with the money prizes. (Apparently, male chauvinism is alive and well in Toronto.)
So, Raya double-crosses Michelle and slips into the crew operated by her friend Bishop (Dwain Murphy), who can't turn her away because she can stomp with the best of his guys. The question is, can a coed group of steppers win a $50,000 prize?
If you've seen any dance movie during the past 25 years, you already know. But don't watch "How She Move" to see where it's going. Watch it to see how it gets there.
The title "How She Move" suggests not only Raya's dance abilities, but her political maneuverings. She uses people, showboats and cheats to get what she wants. Ordinarily, she should be the villainess. Here, Wesley's raw charisma and deep-rooted sadness preserve our empathy as she struggles to achieve her dream of getting out.
Raya's relationships with the other characters constantly shift, as real ones do, and go through rivalry, friendship, resentment and forgiveness. No character is allowed to remain stagnant.
Yes, "How She Move" traffics in the usual dance movie cliches, but this film loves its characters and encourages us to like them, not despite their faults, but because of them.
Several spectacular dance sequences (choreographed by Hi Hat) are thunderous, passionate explosions of movement captured in real time with talented performers.
Then, near the end, Rashid almost undermines his project when he slams his climactic finale into "Flashdance" overdrive with flashy quick edits, the kind of sequence created in the editing room, not on the dance floor.
Nonetheless, Wesley's mercurial, centered performance coupled with powerful urban choreography gives "How She Move" a step up from routine dance contest films.
"How She Move"
3 stars out of four
Opens today
Rutina Wesley as Raya Green
Tre Armstrong as Michelle
Dwain Murphy as Bishop
Written by Annmarie Morais. Produced by Jennifer Kawaja, Julia Sereny and Brent Barclay. Directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid. A Paramount Vantage release. Rated PG-13 (drug use, language). Running time: 91 minutes.