Step

Subtitles by explosiveskull

The streets of Baltimore are tense tonight.

Violent protestors overran parts of the city

this afternoon,

attacking police, looting stores...

The charge of six officers

in the case of Freddie Gray,

who died after being in police custody,

and at the center of the story...

This is one of

our darkest days as a city

and I know that we are much better than this.

Attention! Attention!

(CHANTING) You may think you may know,

but there's one thing that's for sure.

That the Lethal Ladies of BLSYW

are the ones you can't resist.

Sisterhood and integrity,

you mess with my sister and you mess with me.

We step with soul, we step with pride.

Lethal Ladies till the day we die.

Come on, ladies.

All right. Okay.

- Hello, everyone. Hi.

I'm Gari. I'm the new step coach.

Did you all hear you got a new step coach?

Y'all can call me Coach G. You good with that?

I'm a first-generation college student.

I'm the only person in my family who has a degree.

I live on Gilmor Street,

where Freddie Gray was murdered,

so I'm very well-rounded with

what goes on out in these streets.

I want everyone to introduce themselves to me.

Tell me why you like to step.

My name is Amanda Leonard.

I like to step because it's empowering.

It's a form of art that brings us all together.

I can express myself in different ways during step

and this is also my side hustle

because I don't do hair or makeup.

- (LAUGHING) - (SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY)

I like to step because it's a passion of mine,

I'm good at it

and I like to see our ideas come to life.

Step is life.

Step is life. - Yes.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Sometimes I feel like I just go

somewhere else when I step.

It's like therapy a little bit.

Like you up there screaming and yelling

and faces and muggin'

and steppin' like you just stomping your life away.

Throwing your hair everywhere. You clappin'.

Got all your friends around, you know? Just like...

We makin' music with our bodies.

Like, that's some slick stuff.

That's slick though, ain't it? That's slick.

One more time, ladies.

Step is a complete getaway for me.

Like a complete erase from home.

My community is pretty poisonous,

I'm not even gonna lie.

It feels good to know that,

like, you and your teammates are all on the same page

and that you're just moving as one.

I started the step team in sixth grade

and over the years, we got good,

but last year, everything just fell apart.

I missed about 53 days of school

and my grades didn't meet the GPA requirement,

so I was kicked off the step team.

We lost every competition that year.

Ladies, that was good! That was on point.

But that was last year, right?

What's up this year?

We taking it to the next level, right?

Y'all ready?

I want them to understand

that this is way bigger than stepping.

It's about not making excuses

making sacrifices, having a positive attitude.

I know it gets tough. We're in Baltimore City.

They come home to no lights,

come home to violence in their neighborhood,

not having food in the refrigerator,

not having a refrigerator at all.

But when they come to step practice,

all those things are erased out of their mind.

So that is why they can succeed.

'Cause they can make it through step practice,

so they can make it through life.

In exactly 274 days,

we will graduate our first twelfth-grade class.

We have an entire city

that's waiting for the power that we will unleash.

My mission is to make sure

each and every one of you

from sixth grade through twelfth grade

is accepted to and graduates from college.

This is just the beginning

of a litany of success and greatness

that will be the grand history

of the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women.

Ah! I was such a cute child. What happened?

I don't know why my mother made us pose like this

at every school picture.

Like, look at that gut!

I remember this year.

Mmm-hmm.

I loved that church. I loved that church so much.

Grace Bible Baptist on Rolling Road.

They taught...

That was like the best song ever.

Now you see how they had me steppin' on the church bus

before I was even steppin'.

I was like, you could count on me, like,

Brother Jerry's like, "Keep the beat, Blessin!"

"Keep the beat!" Like, I got that beat.

This is my father. He drew this of himself

when he had a lot of time to just draw.

I tried to do the best that I could

with raising my girls as basically a single parent,

because their father and I...

Well, their father and I do better

when we're not in the same household.

I'll put it like that. Yeah.

Is this my handwriting?

Oh, I remember this. "The Frankenstein."

"This is a story by Blessin. 4-2-2003."

"One day, a spooky monster came into the night

"to kill the woman that break up with him.

"Her door bust open

"and Frankenstein bust in the house

"and made something go like boom!"

What was going on in your house?

It's just that when you hear, "Boom!" you know to zoom!

- You know what I'm sayin'? - (FAMILY LAUGHING)

Because I had him pinned down

and I was literally choking him out.

They know when I'm depressed,

they know when I'm worried, you know.

And they'd be very concerned about me.

Mm-hmm.

You know you like it.

I'm kind of an introvert.

I'm not very dramatic.

But all those parts come out of me when I step.

I'm just everything that step is not.

Y'all take a ten-minute break.

5:40 come back.

So, since sixth grade,

I've really been working super-hard

to graduate top of my class,

because my dream school is Johns Hopkins University.

Hopkins costs about $60,000 per year in tuition and

I don't have $60,000 per year for tuition

so I'm hoping to get a full ride.

Wait, did you all wash your hands first?

- Yes. - No.

I got half yeses and half nos.

I have six siblings, so,

my parents aren't gonna have enough money

to send me to school for four years,

especially not at Hopkins.

Taylor said the soup is delicious.

Who the bomb? Who's the woman?

Who makes great soup? Yeah, baby!

Cori, what's this?

It's called coding.

You make a secret code to make pictures.

Stay still, Taylor.

You want to make a bunny?

A bunny? - Hmm?

Wanna make a bunny?

Yes.

So if I make it 300, his ear will be gone.

It's really important for my mom

to see her kids do well in life, in school.

My mom didn't go to college

because she didn't really have anybody

who was there to support her through the process.

And she also had me when she was 16.

Isn't this crazy?

'Cause you have a Mickey Mouse blanket.

Yes. My room was Mickey Moused-out!