The New York Times-20080125-Dance- Fight- Laugh- Cry And Read Great Literature- -Review-

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Dance, Fight, Laugh, Cry And Read Great Literature; [Review]

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How She Move, a feature by the director Ian Iqbal Rashid (Touch of Pink) about a disaffected young woman competing in dance contests, is the latest incarnation of the up-by-your-bootstraps musical drama. There's nary a twist you don't see coming. But the film's strong acting, spectacular dance routines and culturally specific details turn cliches into catharsis. It's the sort of film that sends you home with a spring in your step.

Rutina Wesley, a recent Juilliard graduate, stars as Raya, a young woman from Jane-Finch Corridor, a multiethnic part of Toronto. Raya, the descendant of Caribbean immigrants, who excels both at academics and stepping, an acrobatic form of dance that uses hands, feet and sometimes props as percussive instruments.

She left her neighborhood to attend private school, but blew a scholarship qualifying exam (a setback she has kept secret). Now she's a sullen loner who clashes with nearly everyone, including a longtime friend named Michelle (Tre Armstrong), a stepper and troubled student who accuses Raya of being a cultural traitor and slumming.

The truth is, Raya had good reason to choke during that big test. Her beloved older sister -- a local legend in stepping contests, briefly glimpsed in flashbacks dancing with a preadolescent Raya -- had recently died from a drug overdose. To the film's credit this tragedy, which would have been an arbitrary tear-jerking touch in other movies, hangs over every frame, even in fleeting details, like the shot of Raya reading Jane Eyre.

Raya gets a chance to return to private school courtesy of a local stepping contest with a $50,000 top prize. She's good enough to dance with any team, and she's ruthless in her choice. She considers joining Michelle's team, then hooks up with one run by a male friend (and potential beau) named Bishop (Dwain Murphy), because, as the script makes clear, the world of stepping is intensely sexist, segregating teams by gender and always awarding the top prize to male teams. (The screenwriter, Annmarie Morais, herself a descendant of Caribbean immigrants in Toronto, embroiders the story with details that feel lived rather than researched.)

If you've ever seen a film before, you know that Raya will repeatedly clash with Bishop, go over to a rival squad and return to Bishop's side for a triumphant finale. You also know that she will flagrantly disregard the angry warnings of her academically minded mom (a heart-wrenching Melanie Nicholls-King) and concentrate on dance at the expense of schoolwork. And that when she inevitably wins the big prize, her mother will be there and have a change of heart.

It is, in short, the kind of movie that sinks or swims on its performances and atmosphere. How She Move is aces in both departments, from its magnetic cast of skilled dancer-actors to its script, which alternates eloquently rough (yet rarely profane) zingers with exchanges that strengthen the film's themes while further defining its smart, striving characters.

They've got ninth graders reading Tolstoy? Raya asks, spying a book in the hands of Bishop's fleet-footed teammate and kid brother, Quake (Brennan Gademans).

They've got ninth graders reading 'Death of a Salesman,' Quake replies. I'm reading Tolstoy.

HOW SHE MOVE

Opens on Friday nationwide.

Directed by Ian Iqbal Rashid; written by Annmarie Morais; director of photography, Andre Pienaar; edited by Susan Maggi; music by Andrew Lockington; production designer, Aidan Leroux; choreography by Hi-Hat; produced by Jennifer Kawaja, Julia Sereny and Brent Barclay; released by Paramount Vantage. Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes.

WITH: Rutina Wesley (Raya Green), Dwain Murphy (Bishop), Tre Armstrong (Michelle), Brennan Gademans (Quake), Shawn Desman (Trey), Kevin Duhaney (E. C.), Melanie Nicholls-King (Faye Green), Keyshia Cole (herself) and DeRay Davis (himself).

[Illustration]PHOTO: Rutina Wesley in Ian Iqbal Rashid's How She Move. (PHOTOGRAPH BY IAN WATSON/PARAMOUNT VANTAGE)