Despite Flawed Plot Clichés, Dancing Takes Center Stage in ‘How She Move’

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CHICAGO – Kids, it’s an old-fashioned dance off, and despite being about the contemporary and very urban stepdance craze, it has all the hope, dreams, choreography and clichés of a golden-age Hollywood musical revue.

“How She Move” has Rutina Wesley portraying Raya Green: a private-school scholarship student who’s forced to come back to her old, inner-city neighborhood and high school after the death of her sister from a drug overdose.

As kids, the siblings entertained themselves with stepdancing, which is an intensely programmed variation on hip-hop moves. The sister who passed away went on to be a champion stepper, and when Raya comes back, she’s drawn in again by the lure of the dance despite her scholarship pursuit.