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For Tango, we have “Take the Lead.” For step dancing, we have “Stomp the Yard.” For Hip Hop, we have “You Got Served.” We even have a documentary dance movie called “Rize” which is about krump dancing – the dance of anger. No one had yet made a movie about street dancing. Film director Jon Chu takes the advantage of the hidden art of street dancing in directed the sequel of “Step Up” as “Step Up 2: The Streets.”
“Step Up 2: The Streets” emphasizes street dancing, which is what people create in the street. The movie points out the struggle between street arts and formal arts. Street arts can be anything you see in the street, like street graffiti, street basketball and even skateboarding.
On the street, you don’t see ballet, modern, ballroom or tango. You only see culture, and street dancing is the culture, created by people from different backgrounds.
Unlike other dance movies, “Step Up 2″ starts with the dance scene in trains. It is a very catchy opening, as normal dancers don’t dance in the train. Instead, they dance in the dance studio or on the stage with lighting and props. That introduces the differences between traditional dancers and street dancers.
The story is about a girl, Andie, played by Brianna Evigan, who is influenced by street culture. She lost her mother when she was young. “410″ is her dance crew, formed in the street, that became her life.
Andie’s guardian, her deceased mother’s friend, doesn’t support her dancing in the street and thinks that it is a bunch of hooligans messing around and causing troubles. Andie finally run away from home.
She doesn’t run far. She meets her friend, Tyler Gage, in the club. Gage was also the main character from the first “Step Up.” Gage introduces her to The Maryland School of the Arts – the dance school he went to in the first movie. This is where Andie applies her skill to a real dance studio for the first time. She feels out of place.
Andie’s teacher is a classic ballet dancer who doesn’t appreciate street culture. He thinks street dancing is a sub-culture and thinks that it is only for criminals and people who don’t take their life seriously.
Andie starts spending more of her time dancing in school than in the street because she tries to prove herself to her teacher. Finally, she becomes isolated and expelled from her street crew, 410.
She starts her own group with Chase Collin, the male lead in the movie. They recruit different people in the school who are not on the dance team, but have hidden potential to do hip-hop dancing. They don’t get support from both the school and the street at first, but they are finally accepted by having a dance show in the street dance competition.
There are two new ideas in “Step Up 2″ that other dance movies haven’t achieved. It doesn’t focusing on love or relationships between the two lead characters. The first “Step Up” focused too much on the love aspect and not enough on the dance. When people go to see a dance movie, they want to see dance, not romance. “Step Up 2″ strictly focuses on street dancing. It introduces street arts to the public in a tasteful manner.
The second new idea of “Step Up 2″ is its defining of “street dancing.” Dance movies like “Billy Elliot” or “Honey,” already assume the audience has the knowledge of what type of dance is in the movie before they go see it. Of course, to contrast street dancing, those types of dancing are well formed and are in the mainstream. Many people misunderstood street dancing and think it’s some sort of sub-culture.
In fact, street dancing is a big hit this year. Film producers are trying to make money out of it, as professional choreographers are adding elements of street dancing into famous music videos and even MTV is has a show named “America’s Best Dance Crew,” which is a competition of street dancing. Jon Chu should adopt this type of new dance culture and perhaps produce “Step Up 3.”
Grade: B+
