Stomp the Yard Film 2007-01-12 Film that further popularizes step dancing, a craze that renewed itself. The origins of step in Africa, where it may have served as a means for people without a common language to get to know one another (specifically associated with late nineteenth-century gumboot dancing of mine workers in South Africa). Step is an assertive style of talking through the body--stomping with boots, slapping one's chest, thighs, and legs, whirling and spinning. In the early twentieth century, stepping emigrated to America and settled into the fraternities and sororities of black colleges like Morehouse and Spellman, where it picked up elements of military drill. Set in a black college in Atlanta, Georgia, Stomp the Yard turned into a slick piece of commercial manufacture that relied on embarrassingly obvious plot turns and the usual supercharged battery of glib camera tricks--slow motion, jump cutting, freeze-frame. The director, Sylvain White, did not chop up the dancing, but was too impatient to hold the image for more than a few seconds, making much of the dance movement get lost in whipped-up visuals. (David Denby, "Young and Restless" The New Yorker, February 4, 2008, p. 82.) Performing Arts Encyclopedia http://www.loc.gov/performingarts Tap Dance America http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/html/tda/tda-home.html tda IHAS 151216 loc.music.tda.2612