The fierce women both in front and behind camera of the documentary Step are aware of how special their movie is. Watching the finished product of a film made by women about women is something inspiring to see, and everyone associated with the film has been changed by the experience. Director Amanda Lipitz, as well as the subjects of the film Step, sat down with The Young Folks to talk about film, dance and growing up on-camera.
Director Amanda Lipitz
The Young Folks: You initially started work on the stage. What was the impetus to transition into filmmaking?
Amanda Lipitz: I’m a Broadway producer; I produce musicals and plays, and I love musicals! I think Step is a musical documentary. On the side of my Broadway producing career I was making short films about first generation students going to college and girls’ education, working with schools in and around New York and around the country telling their stories. Every time I encountered a story of a first generation student going to college it blew me away; the range of emotions, the leap of faith that you go through when you’re trying to be the first in your family to accomplish it, and how it took a village, knowing people along the way. I really loved directing and I had gone to film school, but I felt my experience on-stage helped me be a better director in terms of telling a story.
I know you next question will be “how did this happen?” I was working with a bunch of schools in New York that were public schools for girls [who] had 100% acceptance rate to college, and I was really blown away by these schools. I was born and raised in Baltimore and…my mother and I were having a conversation about what we could do to impact young people in Baltimore, and I suggested to her that she go look at these schools. She’s been an activist for a long time, so she went and was the force behind the start of the school in Baltimore along with a lot of other committed Baltimore citizens. I started making films for her and I met these young women when they were in the 6th grade…so it wasn’t until many years later BLESYN [Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women] invited me to come film the step team and I thought, “Oh my God, this is like a musical.” When characters can’t speak anymore they sing to express their fears and hopes and dreams, and that’s what these young women were doing with step.
I wasn’t familiar with step and the rich history of coming from Africa and being a collegiate sport in this country in African-American performing sororities, and I think it is subconscious now that these little sixth graders went to a school that was going to send them all to college and they started a step team in the 6th grade. I think it’s pretty subconscious on their level that they were determined to succeed.
What is it about step that makes it unlike other forms of dance or collegiate sports?
I really think it’s what Blessin’ says in the beginning of the movie. She says, “We’re making music with our bodies. That’s some slick stuff!” She encapsulates it. They’re making music with their bodies. Their whole body is being used as an instrument to tell a story; the power of the group, being in sync, stepping together, the use of words with dance in such a way that it’s different than any other art form out there.
What was a typical day like for you? Was it checking in with everyone asking what their schedule was or just following them around and seeing what happens?
We structured the whole production schedule around senior year, so that was our arc. We worked with the school and my associate producer Loucia Hamilton, who actually worked in the school, was a huge help in making sure our schedule mirrored the college process. Everything was built around that. We filmed almost every practice, so we knew they had rehearsals on certain days. We knew the competitions were happening at certain points. And everyone was there when they were applying to college. We were there and stayed there for several days after that. When things happened, when there were moments….we talk all the time and we’re extremely close. I’ve known [the girls] for a really long time so they were good about being like, “Hey, this is coming up” or “Hopkins is going to come in the next few days.” Also Miss Dofat and Coach G were a huge help. So it was a group effort in making sure we didn’t miss anything, but also just being around when there wasn’t anything going on, hanging out and not bringing the cameras was also a part of the process.
The girls struggle outside of school with no electricity or no food in some instances. What were the boundaries between documentarian and friend for you, especially since you’ve known these young women for so long?
As difficult as it was for you to watch it was as difficult as it was for me to be in it. The toughest moments in the film were the toughest moments to film. I am very grateful for the trust I earned from those young women and their families. They saw my work; they got a chance to see a lot of the shorts I made, so they knew what my accessibility was going to be. It was a leap of faith. I knew there were major economic factors in this, so I made a rule at the beginning of filming that we kept throughout which is that because they were minors when they were with me and filming they were fed, transported and safe. I really stuck with that no matter what was going on, and it served us well in a lot of circumstances, so I felt good about the work we were doing off-camera. Certainly it helped that I’d known them since they were 11-years-old. I also had an incredible crew. My DP and audio were wonderful people that the girls also fell in love with, were great with kids, little kids. There were lots of little brothers and sisters around so we formed a family, all of us, and I’m grateful for that.
You’re dealing with teenage girls. Were there hijinks that got caught on camera?
Absolutely! We have 400+ hours of footage and I’ve been filming them off and on since they were in the 9th grade, so certainly there’s a lot left on the cutting room floor, whether it didn’t make sense for our editing process or because I felt it wasn’t there to put things like that in a film and saddle them with that, have something that happened when you were 17-years-old color your whole life. The biggest challenge when talking about teenage girls is the fact that this is a team and I was very conscientious about making sure everyone felt they were a part of that. It wasn’t just about Cori, Blessin’ and Tayla. That was something I worked on everyday and sometimes I was better at it then other days. I really, truly love all the girls on the team and I’m grateful that people realize, even though you don’t know every single girl’s name, you feel like you know them by the end of the movie. [The audience] sees that it is about a team.
The competition sequence is such a perfect combination of Broadway with a documentary edge. What were the challenges filming that because you want to show the girls but you also have a very enthusiastic audience?
They were long days; they were my biggest shoot days; they were the days I had the most talent and the most money going into those days. I had three Go-Pros and three cameras positioned around. We were in practice the whole time so my DP Casey Regan knew the routine. We knew which way they were going. We knew who was talking when, so we were able to pinpoint exactly what we wanted, even though we only had one chance to get it. The Baltimore City Step Show I wanted to do a Fame-thing, so we did some of those shots in the auditorium I tried to replicate. [Fame] was one of my favorite movie musicals growing up. For Bowie State that drop at the end was such a huge, significant moment for them so I was really anxious to know we got that drop from every angle. Obviously the walk down the halls is set up to all those white men we see walk the halls in slow motion. It was like Reservoir Dogs, The Hangover. But when I saw Hidden Figures and they did [that walk] with all those women I was like, “Yes!” I was so excited to see it.
What was the atmosphere like being a female director telling this female-centric story? How do you feel entering the pantheon of films by women, about women, for women?
Honestly, the journey of Step is beyond my wildest dreams or expectations. My biggest dream for it was that the young women in it were proud to have been a part of it when they saw it and that was my biggest goal. I always feel like we’re winners and the best thing that can happen is the film opens and shows the world we want these stories that we don’t always represent in the fairest way, and show a pocket of hope in our country so that people can continue to work and make the world a better place. It sounds cheesy but that’s what I hope.
College Counselor Paula Dofat and Step Coach Gari McIntyre
How has this press tour been for you both, particularly since you two work in an academic setting primarily?
Paula Dofat: Different in a really good way. It’s cool because you get the opportunity to have the taste of a life that you normally would not have. Everybody doesn’t get the opportunity to have an intro or a touchpoint with Hollywood, and we do and we’re really grateful and exciting.
Gari McIntyre: It’s exciting, it’s a blessing and humbling. It’s something I’m sure neither one of us last year would imagine we would be in. We’re so grateful to be here and inspire others, and also tell the story that people who aren’t in this opportunity – college counselors, step coaches, coaches all over the world – who do this every single day, who have us as a point of reference to what we go through.
Gari, what’s the step season been like since the film wrapped production?
GM: When the film wrapped production I thought I’d be done with the graduating seniors and we wouldn’t see each other; we’d be in contact through life. Since the film has wrapped we’ve performed several times at Sundance Film Festival. We’ve performed for Michelle Obama, the New York Signing DaY. We’ve performed at Essence Film Festival, Bentonville Film Festival, so our performances have reached a new height of audiences. With the current team they have big shoes to fill and they’re working hard to get there.
What’s the response been from the other students and teachers at BLESYN with the film’s release imminent?
PD: I don’t think the impact has hit yet. I don’t think it will until the movie is actually released. Because we are out, going to screenings and interviewing it’s more real to us at this point. Once the movie is released in theaters and once they begin to see the press come out there will be some changes. At this point, personally, I can’t predict what that’s going to be like.
GM: I will say with the step team, inquiries within the school have increased since the talks of the movie. In Baltimore people want to have the step team perform. As far as the school, staff members have been supportive, but the big thing will be when it’s in theaters.
Gari, this was your first year working with the team when the documentary was filming. How did you navigate a new job at the same time as being in a film?
GM: It’s weird the cameras aren’t around now because that was my first coaching job, period. Not only was I new to the school I was a first-time coach and the cameras were there at practices, following girls home, sometimes following me home. It became normal. A lot of times I forgot the cameras were there. I was very natural and myself. The cameras being there really made me sterner and [check] the integrity of myself because if nothing ever came from the documentary and one person that I knew saw it I wanted them to be able to say, truly, “This is Gari and how she operates and what she does,” and I think I was true to that.
We’re introduced to the team in the midst of the current season and I wanted to ask you, Gari, how does one actually get on the step team at BLESYN?
GM: There’s a GPA requirement to join the team and then we hold tryouts. Whoever can make it through the tryout process makes it on the team. The tryout process is pretty rigorous and a lot to deal with. If you can balance it with academics then you’re on the team. I don’t do any cuts, whatsoever. If you can make it through the season, which is a challenge in itself, while still being on track academically; that doesn’t just mean making the GPA requirement. That means your grades aren’t slipping in English because you’re leaving to do something for step, or you have a performance out of state and you’re missing a test. Education comes first and that’s clear from day one. After education you have to have discipline and sisterhood and solidarity; those are my three principles in making that magic happen.
What was it like navigating your jobs with a camera following you? Was there a need to censor yourself?
PD: I will say, and I can speak for Gari on this, she and I were on the same page. When we spoke with Amanda Lipitz, part of our agreement was that we would be who we are. We wanted to do our jobs and whatever you get, you get. We also wanted to be protective of the girls in some ways because there were some things that didn’t need to be shown on film. For the most part it was whatever we were doing we wanted to make sure it was authentic.
GM: Yes. I would say, to reiterate what Paula says, we were authentic and uncensored. We did our jobs regardless of whether cameras were around or not. There were some situations that were more sensitive to the students in the film specifically that they, or their parents, didn’t want filmed. If someone spoke to me and said, “I don’t want the cameras to be a part of the conversation” they’d be shut down immediately.
What was the typical production schedule for you? Was it just telling the camera crew what you were doing that day?
PD: They would give me a production schedule [saying] “on this day the cameras will be there” and they would ask me which students I was working with that day. The cameras were not intrusive at all. They just existed, we did our jobs and walked around them, sometimes we tripped over cords.
GM: It was very natural. Amanda was very accommodating and worked around our schedule. Nothing changed much for me. She came to practice and I did my thing. She respected that I wanted to run practices just as I would, regardless of whether the cameras were there or not.
Paula, we see you and [lead] Blessin [Giraldo] butt heads about her going to college while you’re trying to get the rest of the girls into the colleges of their choice. How do you remain encouraging to your students who don’t know what they want to do in life?
PD: This is my fifth year [at the school] and I came from New York, the Young Woman’s Leadership School of New York, which our school is modeled after. The reason I bring that up is because when I came to take this position, one of the stipulations was that I would be able to make sure every girl had a success plan. I was guaranteed that every girl would be accepted to college and I stand on that, and that will be from now until I leave; every girl will be accepted to college. It was more important, though, that they have success plans because the world is what it is and college is not for everyone. There are ways people can have amazing careers and not go to college. For example, right now there are not enough people to fill IT positions and there are certain IT positions that can be filled with a certificate program from a community college, or a certificate program from an accredited program. So I’m looking more so at what is going to be the best fit for their lives and what are they interested in?
Ultimately, I have girls who are what we would say “college material,” however their heart is not in it. Just from human nature you don’t do well with things you don’t want to do. Sometimes we do find out those things are good for us, but we have to get there because we have to be fully vested to get the best out of everything we do. Success plans are more important to me than college plans, per se, and a lot of times those success plans include college plans.
You ladies offer the girls so much support while they’re in high school. Do you know how the young women have handled the transition from high school to college?
PD: It is a very difficult transition, but what I did within my department was I also created an alumni support coordinator position. So we have someone who follows our girls through college. She visits them on-campus. This past school year she visits them once a year. This coming school year we found out we need two visits – we’ll have one in the fall, one in the spring. She monitors grades, financial aid. In fact this current graduating class for 2017 she made sure each of them had toiletry care packages and enough toiletries to last them through the semester. She also wrote a grant and received five Chromebooks, and she used those as scholarship incentives for some of the girls. We are not just getting them to college, we’re making sure they get through college or through whatever program or success plan they’ve set up.
The girls’ graduation scene at the end is such an emotional moment for the audience. What was that like to witness as educators?
PD: By the time graduation comes I’m totally okay. And what I mean by that is, for me my graduation day is Signing Day; when we have our college signing day. That’s my department’s graduation. So when each girl announces where she will be attending college we have an admissions rep from every college, every girl gets a T-shirt of the college they’ll be attending, and they do a ceremonial signing to that college. That’s when I have my emotional breakdown. The actual graduation is funny – they laugh at me at school and say, “Oh, she just comes” because I’ve already had my graduation.
But all in all, because that was the first graduating class, it was still very exciting. It was just knowing that I’ve been with these girls for four years, watching them transition from 9th grade to 12th grade, and then them stepping out on their own. You feel accomplished and like there’s something bigger than yourself, that you’re a part of this grand scheme of success waiting to happen. I truly believe that even with all the bumps and all the falls and failures that will come in their lives we do know ultimately that each one will have their own brand of success because success is an individual thing.
GM: Because I’m not on the educational side…to see them complain all year while they’re doing the classes that really challenge them, to see it all come to a head and see them being successful, from all walks and their families are there [as well] as all of the production, it was really awesome. It brought me to tears because a lot of them were first generation high school graduates. Some probably didn’t think they’d make it to that point and had expressed that to me. They had the future in their hands; no matter what happened from kindergarten to 12th grade, it was over. Now they have a fresh start and that was something I could resonate with because I went through a lot of the same things they did, academically.
PD: And that’s the first time I’ve ever seen Coach G cry!
GM: It was very overwhelming because, like I said, they had the world in their hands and it was amazing!
PD: She’s not a crier.
Stars Blessin Giraldo, Cori Grainger and Tayla Solomon
What’s the press tour been like, especially since this is something that started back when you were in high school?
Blessin Giraldo: It’s been fun. We’ve been to cities that we’ve never been before and I think we’re becoming pros at this.
How did you deal with school and personal issues with cameras following you?
Tayla Solomon: That’s one of the most popular questions we get. It’s funny because all of us feel like the cameras didn’t make a difference. Everything that happened was going to happen, regardless of whether the cameras were there or not. The biggest adjustment was the fact they were there all the time. It did get frustrating but you think of the bigger purpose of why they’re doing it in the first place. All of us had a vision in mind. All of us had a story to tell, so the cameras were little compared to the expectations we had for the movie.
BG: The most stressful part of balancing being a student stepper and filming a documentary wasn’t really the documentary, that was the easiest part because most of the time you forgot you were on-camera. It was like a fly on the wall. The challenging part for me was balancing my academics and getting into college, that was one of my short-term goals. I wanted to make sure I had all the ingredients to get that done.
The audience watches you go through some harsh life challenges. How did you deal with situations where you didn’t want the camera on you?
TS: I can speak for everyone when I say we definitely shooed the cameras out of our face if we didn’t want them. They were respectful of that because it’s our lives; the documentary isn’t made up. They were respectful of the fact that we needed our personal time and that they still had a job to do.
BG: It took a lot of courage for you to display those moments of your life in front of the camera, especially knowing the camera crew would respect you if you said otherwise. It was bigger than us. We represent a generation; we represent young women and men all across the country that go through similar struggles. We basically used our stories to help someone else get through similar situations.
Blessin we watch you struggle to find a goal after high school. You’re doing the bridge program as we saw at the end of the film. How’s that going and what was it like to see that struggle on film? Were there elements you wish you could change now?
BG: I wouldn’t change anything about my past because it makes me who I am today. I learned about ownership. I learned about being a leader; the trials and the triumphs that come with it isn’t all beauty, glitter and gold. It is something that can be a testimony for me, everyday. When I watch the documentary I get inspiration from me being so courageous to open up about that in my life. A lot of people look at me and think I was really well put-together; I’m happy, well-spoken. But everyone has a struggle and that’s one of the things everyone in the human race has in common. I feel like I would love to be that example. There are times in the documentary where I look physically stressed out. I look like I’m going through something, and whether it was my home environment or questioning if college is for me or not, it was something that I got through and that I couldn’t get through without my team and the amazing support that I had around me.
I was talking to Paula and she mentioned the alumni coordinator. What was it like transitioning to a life outside of high school?
Cori Grainger: It wasn’t too hard of a transition because once I got to campus I found my circle. I found my corner of people to support me. There are a lot of different offices on campus with resources available for anything that you can need – social, academic. I made a lot of friends. We’re all freshmen so we’re going to have to do registration day; we’re all going to have to work together. It wasn’t too hard for me, especially having the support of our college coordinator at BLESYN.
TS: While I do attend Alabama A&M University and [I was still in contact with] Miss Dofat and one of my friends from BLESYN, so it wasn’t that hard for me to adjust. I definitely didn’t want to make any new friends because I’ve been in school with my sisters for seven years, and I didn’t go out in my neighborhood to make friends because I had 120 sisters of my own, all with different personalities. Then I had 19 of the 120 [at Alabama], so it wasn’t really hard to make friends my first semester. I used to cry to my mom all the time and I would cry to my family and they would say, “Oh, just come back home.” I said no, I’m sorry. I became a social butterfly and that created a lot more friends. Now my friends live everywhere, Chicago, Atlanta.
CS: Everywhere we go she says she has friends who live here and I’m like, “Where don’t you have friends?”
Amanda said she shot 400 hours of footage and that some of it included typical high school shenanigans. Was anything filmed you didn’t want your parents to see?
BG: I wouldn’t say that. I’d say we signed up for a documentary to put our lives in front of the cameras and we are all looking for amazing careers so we’d never do anything on-camera that would follow us for the rest of our lives. We wanted to inspire. We wanted to be real, genuine. We wanted to be who we are and I feel like a teenage girl is going to be a teenage girl 24/7. We can’t pick and choose what day and time we want to be who we are.
CG: I wouldn’t necessarily say we were embarrassed or anything, but definitely nervous about how our families would perceive the movie.
BG: The situation between my mom and my father was a really sensitive topic for me, so seeing the way it was edited and displayed in the movie was a great representation of how strong my family structure is, regardless of what has happened in the past.
Tayla, we watched you and your mom butt heads. Now that you’re in college were her fears justified?
TS: We’re cool. My mom has been very supportive and now that I’m in school and far away she trusts me to make the right decisions, academically. The scene in the movie where my mom fusses about me getting the low grade that I did, I definitely learned from that moment when I went to college. The first thing I did was buy a planner and planned everything, from when I need to do laundry to when I need to go class. What time do I wake up for class? What time do I need to leave to get to the building? The high discipline really taught me how to be organized and responsible.
What was the response from other students, whether at the time of production or now? I’d assume people want to be your best friend.
BG: I wouldn’t say that. A lot of the girls in the school saw the cameras rolling in the hallways, in the classrooms, so they already knew what to expect. We had high expectations for ourselves and the success of the documentary, but we never thought that it would be in theaters. People are seeking opportunity, but we know who our genuine friends are.
Cori, you intimidate me going to Johns Hopkins. What’s the experience been like for you? Was it everything you thought it would be?
CS: I do think it was everything I thought it would be, which is to not necessarily a good thing. I knew it would be hard; I knew I would have to work extra hard; I knew it wasn’t going to be an environment I was familiar with and that was pretty much how my first year went. It was a rough transition for the first year, going from being a big fish in a small pond at BLESYN – I graduated valedictorian – but at Hopkins everybody does that, so I don’t want to say it’s not as much of a feat but at the same time it’s a different environment. Everyone at that school is top of the top.
My first semester was rough but my second semester went a lot better because I got to learn about what works best for me. I also spent a lot of time with myself. I wasn’t too social. I didn’t go out, join activities because I wanted to focus on me and my schoolwork. In the spring semester I got more involved in social activities, mentoring programs, so it’s going pretty well and I’m excited to go back.
With everything you have going on in your lives and with school do you still find time to dance?
TS: After we went to Sundance we definitely made time for step in our life. At school, probably not, I don’t step at all.
CS: There’s a step team at Hopkins, but I’m not on it. I do plan to join eventually.
BG: I continue to go back to the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women and help out with the step team there. I didn’t really focus on joining any clubs or electives in college because I wanted to focus on my academics.
What do you want people to take away from the film?
BG: I would say to be brave, to be bold and be courageous. When things take place in your life, adversities, it’s up to you to dictate what you’re going to do in response because you are the only author of your story. You can’t really blame anything on anybody else, take ownership and continue towards resilience. That’s what really builds great character and will steer you in the right direction towards success. Don’t be afraid to open up your heart and ask for help because it takes a village to raise one person, and it takes different people’s opinions to figure out what might be best for you because you might need that extra piece of advice or input on something you aren’t accustomed to.
CS: I would want people – and it’s cliche – to dream big. Two years ago none of us expected to be in the place we are now. If I were to say I wanted to be in a movie and travel the world talking about the movie, people would look at me like I was crazy; it seemed impossible then. But if you set a goal and stick to it, really believe in yourself and find people who also believe in you and want to help, then nothing is impossible.
TS: I want people to know that anything is possible. If you put your mind to it you can do it, no matter what obstacles you may reach. And find a support system. A lot of people may not know they have a support system, or see the people in their life who want them to do great. You shouldn’t just ask people to support you, you should support others. So pay it forward.
What advice do you have for young women who might be undecided about education?
TS: I definitely think college isn’t for everyone, but if you go and find out it’s not what you want to do don’t be afraid to step out of the box and out of your comfort zone. If you know college is what you want to do then you’ll find a way to find the funding for it. You’ll find scholarships, financial aid, to be able to not have loans. I took out loans for school and my mom had to pay out of pocket, so it’s difficult. You really have to grind to get where you need to be, whether it’s college or not.
CS: It’s okay not to know what you want to do. It’s okay to take your time to figure it out. A lot of people fall into things they don’t enjoy because they feel they have to graduate and pick a major as soon as they get there. But there are sophomores in college still unsure of what they want to do. People always ask me, “What do you want to do after you graduate” and I’m not afraid to say I don’t know yet. That’s something that’s not pushed, too often we’re told to make these goals for ourselves and constantly work toward them, but it’s okay to take your time.
BG: Go with your gut. No matter what is going on around you if you have a goal for yourself and you work hard towards it, it can become a reality for you. Go into this making sure it’s something you definitely want to do because you have to want education to work hard and be successful. For one, you’re paying money to be there or you’re on a scholarship. I’d also say seek out support systems so you can be well-rooted and educated on what to expect from the college experience, especially if you’re coming from an urban community, because education is different around the country and the world.
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