By Steve Mcdonald
In less capable hands, “Stomp the Yard” would be 2007s answer to “You Got Served”-a showcase for choreographers that slowed down only when its filmmakers attempted to interject “off the dance floor” drama. Indeed, there has been a recent slate of these movies, including “Save The Last Dance,” “Honey,” “Step Up” and “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights”-almost none of which were concerned enough with story or characters to maintain the pretense that it was, in fact, something other than a big-screen dance-off.
Such is not the case with “Stomp the Yard,” a movie that will be fairly lumped in with these earlier efforts. While it enjoys more than its share of showdown moments and spectacular dance scenes, there is something substantive at its heart-so much so, in fact, that it deserves a place not only above the ranks of its predecessors, but in the canon of outstanding films documenting the modern African-American experience.
“Stomp the Yard”
