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street art

The dramatic concept behind this sequel to 2006’s Step Up is that all true American art forms have originated from the streets, including blues, jazz, rap, hip-hop and step dancing. When poor, oppressed people express themselves, they do it with the uninhibited passion of people who have nothing to lose and need an emotional outlet for their stressful lifestyles. In contrast, schools of the arts teach fundamental arts like music and dance, but cannot duplicate the passionate inventiveness that comes from the streets.
Thus this sequel, directed by Jon Chu, explores the dichotomy between the ever-changing street dancing scene and the discipline of the Maryland School of the Arts, where the film’s protagonist Andie (Biana Evigan) wants to attend. Her guardian, her late mom’s best friend, is about to send her to a relative in Texas because Andie keeps getting into trouble at school and spends all her time with her dancing crew, which is more of a family to her than her home situation.
Andie meets an older young man, Chase Collins (Robert Hoffman), who encourages her to audition for MSA. If she gets in, her guardian will let her stay in Baltimore. Andie reluctantly agrees to audition. To her surprise she gets in on the basis of her raw talent, but the school will be tough and demand that she apply herself to the rigorous physical and scholastic program. Chase is an advanced student and he helps Andie learn the fundamentals of classical dance. Since Andie is spending most of her time at school, she neglects her dance crew and they kick her out. Devastated, Andie makes new friends at school and decides to form her own crew with Chase’s help. Of course, they get humiliated at their first event but decide to continue.
Director Chu, who is himself an alumni of USC’s School of Cinema-Television, is a hip young filmmaker who understands the emotional drive of the story, which involves Andie’s conflict with school versus her love of hip-hop street dancing. Chu played down Andie’s romance with Chase, wisely focusing on the innovative dancing scenes which retain the grittiness of the real streets. In one scene, Chu staged the dancing under rain machines that added an extra flare to the excitement. The delayed sexual tension between Chase and Andie exacerbates the electricity of the dance events. Viewers know that when these two finally get together, it will be explosive.
Clearly, hip-hop dancing is evolving and changing as new routines are developed by the street crews. The dance events are set up like raves with text messages sent to the participants as to where the event will be held. It could be inside some abandoned building, in a moving subway car, or on a street corner. The fact that having a dance event in a subway car is illegal only adds to the excitement.
Andie’s crew runs afoul of her old dance crew breaking into the school dance hall to vandalize it. The headmaster views these dance crews as nothing more than gangs and blames Andie, expelling her. This sets off a chain of events that lead to the grand finale, which is predictable, but the dancing is the whole point of the movie.
Nonetheless, these dance films show young people that live in urban ghettos that there are alternatives to violence. They can work off their anger by joining dance crews instead of violent gangs. It’s a creative and physical outlet that allows the neighborhood rivalry to be challenged by dance showdowns instead of shootouts. Everyone survives and the conflict ends up advancing an exciting art form. It all starts on the streets.