Results: Stepping Up To The Challenges In Life

Move over Wonder Woman and Atomic Blonde -- there's some new superhero women on the big screen. These woman don't have super powers or aren't saving the world from evil, but they have their own unstoppable power -- the power of education. The Sundance Film Festival hit documentary Step goes where scripted stories this summer have not: into the inner city of Baltimore. The protagonists are high school seniors at a rigorous charter school that aims to have every student accepted to college — and many are the first in their families to go. Their bond is step, a dynamic performance tradition that uses the body as both a percussive and expressive instrument. The young women's alter ego? They call themselves the Lethal Ladies of BLSYW (Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women). And these young women use their talent, determination and sisterhood to overcome challenges many of us could only imagine. Have you seen the documentary Step, from filmmaker Amanda Lipitz?

Lipitz filmed the teens for years, but found the strongest content came from the students' junior and senior years, when those who had put in the work came under consideration from colleges like Johns Hopkins and Alabama A&M, and those who had not faced a probable life sentence in poverty. Since filming ended a year ago, the three protagonists highlighted —Blessin Giraldo, Cori Grainger and Tayla Solomon, all 19 — have remained in college. What's more, the Baltimore school's first graduating class of 2016 earned $800,000 in college scholarships. The women filmed were also granted individual scholarships from film producers (Lipitz declined to specify the amount) after the film sold in a bidding war for $4 million at Sundance. In Step, such determination is marked over 90 minutes, as the girls opt to do more than survive — they choose to stomp, study and thrive. Do you like inspirational films like this one?

Blessin Giraldo auditioned this year for So You Think You Can Dance but didn't get too far. However, the judges and evidently the show's producers were intrigued enough to ask her to appear on the show along with her dance troupe. They did appear on the show's August 14th episode, and showed how skilled and dynamic they are. Did you see this routine on the show?

Stepping or step-dancing is a form of percussive dance in which the participant's entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand claps. Though stepping may be performed by an individual, it is generally performed by groups of three or more, often in arrangements that resemble military formations. Clog dancing, Irish step dance, tap, dance and this type of dance, stepping with African roots are all common forms of step. My daughter's middle school had a stepping dance troupe, so I was familiar with this type of dance. Have you seen step dancers or even participated yourself?