A Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Screen Gems presentation of a Rainforest Films production.

Produced by Will Packer. Executive producer, Rob Hardy.

Directed by Sylvain White.

Screenplay, Robert Adetuyi, based on a screenplay by Gregory Anderson.

DJ - Columbus Short
April - Meagan Good
Rich Brown - Ne-Yo
Grant - Darrin Henson
Sylvester - Brian White
Zeke - Laz Alonso
Jackie - Valarie Pettiford
Noel - Jermaine Williams
Dr. Palmer - Allan Louis
Nate - Harry Lennix
Duron - Chris Brown

Camera (Deluxe color, Arri widescreen), Scott Kevan; editor, David Checel; music, Sam Retzer, Tim Boland; music supervisors, Ali Muhammad, Akinah Rahmaan; production designer, Jonathan Carlson; set designer, Jonathan Short; set decorator, Joseph Litsch; costume designer, Keith G. Lewis; sound (Dolby Digital/SDDS/DTS), Shirley Libby; supervising sound editors, Kami Asgar, Lawrence H. Mann; choreographer, Dave Scott; visual effects, Moneyshots; stunt coordinator, Gus Williams; line producer, Carl Clifford; assistant director, Mark Anthony Little; casting, Tracy "Twinkie" Byrd.

Running time: 114 MIN.

MPAA Rating: PG-13

See this film?  

Definitely, the assorted values idealized in the story outweigh the few negative aspects...and the amazing dance sequences are a as yet unseen mainstream depiction of a newer style of dancing...an offshoot of Hip Hop called Krumping—an athletic and visual treat.

See with your kids?

Teens are familiar with a good deal of the fashions and concepts set forth in the film. They would gain from the ideals and behavior rewarded by film’s end. Youth respects their elders, and vice versa. Opening scenes are raw, violence is the undertone with the balance of the film being more about testosterone levels; profanity was mercifully benign; no bedroom scenes; no drugs and Minimal drinking.

This dramatic dance film offers a rare look at the style of dancing called Krumping, the reigning heir on the west coast, to Hip Hop. It also looks at another heir to a centuries old dance style—college Step dancing derived from the old form of African Boot Dance. The blending of all these forms delivers a surprisingly exhilarating finale of richly hued music video quality dance numbers.

The overall acting, filmmaking and story messages were what allows this movie to shine as a mainstream drama. Stomp The Yard’s significance as a rite of passage story rang true for an audience living the drama of the racially charged social structure of today. This movie was not about gangsta activity, drugs, profanity, sex or violence, to each other or to women. This movie was about young African Americans who show respect for women, their elders, each other and a praiseworthy world for themselves, rather than street or gang life. They value a college education, are looking into the future with what can be done with the resulting degree and are seeking ways to merge their identity with higher-education values. The urban dance-off ‘battle’ depicted at the beginning of the story was definitely in stark contrast to the balance of the film, which took place on a comparatively tranquil campus.

In opening scenes, two brothers and their ‘dance family’ ventured where angels fear to tread. DJ, (Columbus Short, watch this one!) was a young man who loved to dance, specifically Krumping (the reigning heir to Hip Hop in Los Angeles). With a penchant for winning, his younger brother is overly attracted to the harsh Krumping underground ‘battle arenas’ and can’t pass up a dare. In a senseless shooting outside, after a particularly triumphant win, DJ loses his younger brother.

DJ’s Aunt (Valarie Pettiford) and Uncle (Henry Lennix) welcomed DJ to Atlanta, Georgia, where his mother sent him, extracting a promise to do well in college. Alums of the high caliber Truth University, they pledged support to DJ if he wanted an education. DJ, in his ‘hoodie’, glum and grieving his brother, walks onto campus, and is soon faced with overcoming class and cultural barriers, winning the girl and defeating the bad guys. He is immediately aware of very attractive April (Meagan Good), for whom he falls—hard. DJ also finds himself the sought-after prize of two fraternities that consistently place first and second in college Step dancing competitions, as his prowess in Krumping comes to light. Considering that April’s current squeeze, Grant (Darrin Henson), is the head of the top-ranked Step dancing competition fraternity. The surly offer to join their fraternity is unattractive to DJ.

The ambitious script included many themes, primarily though, what comes through is character and ethics and that Heritage, in this case, African American Heritage, is a concept to keep in your sights. This particular Heritage is young, still struggling for success and recognition since Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, and so many others, caused a modern re-framing of African American history.

The script, by Robert Adetuyi, based on Gregory Ramon Anderson’s screenplay, spoke to the ongoing, profound complexities of class and identity—that 40 years later, African Americans are still adjusting to stereotypical mentalities—within their own group, as well as without. The uber-male aspect of interactions of black males is still extreme, as is the uber-black posture. Many scenes address this urge. In an early confrontation with Zeke (Laz Alonso), a vicious upper-classman, DJ looks him in the eye and calmly calls him a pretender. As his new friend, Rich Brown (Ne-Yo) pulled him away, he spits out “He’s white!” I love hearing that one about as much as I like hearing ‘he throws like a girl’. This loss-of-identity fear is a constant ‘glass wall’ through which African Americans must go, to succeed and get off the streets.

One stand out scene framed the crux of the problem and how a solution might look. In weeks of grueling rehearsal and training for the upcoming national Step dancing competition, Dj’s entire frat squad scrambled up this rock-strewn hill one morning, racing the dawn. The Sun greeted them when they hit the summit, the group strung along the ridge top, breathing hard, hot, otherwise silent, exhilarated by the steep run. DJ softly starts a chant with the fraternity letters in his own chiding anthem. As the others pick it up, smiling, it hit me again what ‘brotherhood’ means to men, how much they need it. Gangs gather those whom society doesn’t—it is imperative that young people be attracted to positive groupings such as that depicted band of brothers, laughing in the slanting rays of the rising sun.

The dancing illustrated in Stomp The Yard included an urban Krumping battle-style contest and college Step dancing competitions. Stepping includes a good deal of drill-team style lineups, with overtones of military and martial arts movement. Acrobatics, tumbling, Hip Hop, Vogueing, Clowning and an interesting inclination to taunting are major components of Krumping, the reigning heir to Hip Hop. Krumping ‘battles’ are an offshoot of Krumping, and a bit too aggressive for my taste. Krumping is hard to depict on film, all in all, a faster-than-the-eye-can-follow style of dancing. Director Sylvain White captured these extreme dance movements with ease. Sylvain hails from the MTV Music Video and TV Commercial side of the filming fence. At his side was veteran cinematographer Scott Kevan, first using the steely blue, industrial palette for the ‘battle’, then the sunny day scenes on campus, and finally the richly hued, music video glitz of the final dance scenes.

Columbus Short, a skilled dancer (and choreographer), gave an engaging portrayal of DJ, the lead male character. Short took the low road of subtleties, conveying the emotional range through which DJ moved with an authenticity surprising to watch. He has caught a few roles on his way over the divide from dancing to acting, including his Darius, a writer on my favorite TV comedy “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”. Short was an incredibly agile, fiery dancer, whose manner and eyes conveyed a power that gave a smoldering potency to Short’s abilities as a dancer and entertainer. His evident passion, nimble moves and strong physicality made him an attractive candidate for dance films—and he could take all of that into action films. His engaging manner will serve him well; if indeed, Short is ‘stepping’ onto the yellow brick road to mainstream Hollywood films a la Will Smith.

Another young actor that really shines in Stomp The Yard is Brian J. White, a veteran actor, who played football with the ‘New England Patriots’ and Lacrosse with the ‘Boston Blazers’ before going on to acting. His charismatic, striking presence and his own intensity and style are evident in his dancing. Meagan Good (Roll Bounce, You Got Served) divested herself nicely as the love interest and college girl able to handle herself in variable situations. Laz Alonso (The Tenants, Constantine) inventively played Zeke, the archetypal bad guy (the pretender) and he really worked at the sneering, chest-puffing bully.

Excellence is a worthy level to which to aspire, in education, careers and relationships—and in filming. Stomp The Yard was an excellent film about societal pressures, the rewards of the college experience and completely filled the bill as a dance film, depicting the emerging dance style, Krumping, of the Black Dance movement with panache.

Note:

OK, first, ‘Krumping’ is an offshoot of Vogue and Hip Hop and many other elements of the Black Dance movement. Incorporating high-energy movement, it also includes an odd proclivity for facial cues for comedic effect or confrontation, as well as moving into close proximity to others as a challenge and a coy ranking on the ‘opposing’ dancer(s). This taunting aspect calls to mind Anthropology 101 documentaries on early tribal solutions to mass slaughter and battles. Our own Native Americans prized the daring warrior who counted the most ‘coup’ and at the greatest risk. The Maori of the South Pacific perfected their own style of male interaction, their highly stylized interactions come to mind with the first protracted tongue gesture in the first scenes of Stomp The Yard.

To me, the single-most difficult part of these confrontations has got to be standing your ground, trusting the ‘aggressor’ dancer in such close proximity. All up in your face, with arms, legs and head slashing into extreme close quarters, just inches from your own body and head—not something I would want to do, as I would be too worried about them not being good enough to ‘pull their punches’ safely (which is why I never went as far as face-to-face martial arts).

The Black Dance movement

1930’s Harlem ‘Performance’ dance poses evolved into Vogueing (yes, photo model poses with movement), which grew in the late 70’s New York alongside Breakdancing,, the dancers probably sharing moves with each other. Vogue used symmetry and elegant execution of ‘locking’ and ‘popping’, Jazz, tumbling and ballet. Then it took an odd 90-degree turn into the Gay dance clubs. Hip Hop began taking center stage with Michael Jackson’s mainstream use of ‘locking’ and ‘popping’ elements of Breakdancing, a dance form evolving on the ‘streets’, literally, becoming the more familiar Hip Hop. Both incorporate movements from Jazz, Ballet, Gymnastics, and even Martial Arts and Yoga.

In the early 90’s, then California Governor Tony Gray Davis had a spokesperson, Tommy the Clown (Thomas Johnson) who began fusing various dance elements into what he called Clowning, which he spun out from children’s parties into a local Los Angeles movement of young dancers, who became known as the Hip Hop Clowns. He created a traveling entertainment crew and a clown dance academy in the African-American community of Compton.

Tommy the Clown became a neighborhood staple, providing young kids with a much-needed creative outlet. It caught on and spread to other neighborhoods. He also reimagined the decades-old tradition of dance battles in his creation of The Battle Zone: events and spaces where these clown groups engaged in competition, in which the community audience chose the winners. Krumping grew out of these contests, and during the last two years it has become a dance of its own.

Fierce, back-alley underground dog fights such as was depicted in the opening scene of Stomp The Yard is not what Tommy the Clown envisioned. It is a sad fact that everything good can be corrupted, if desired. There is in fact, the thinnest of lines between aggression and killing. The trick is to keep the line brightly visible.