Showstoppers is a competition of sorority sisters to be the best steppers. That may sound like an odd statement, but this DVD covers the college competition. I'd call this stomping, but it's called stepping mixed in with arm movements and gyrations taken from other forms of dance that go back thousands of years.
The young women are joined along the way by men who are good at stepping and the competition heats up. When one side loses its stepping captain, they are chagrined they have no one to lead them to victory because they know they are better than the other team.
The girls have grit and determination and find another leader who is wiling to take them to victory. They work out, play together, commiserate together, sleep together, and ride the bus to competitions together. They do almost everything together. I say almost everything.
Foul language obliterates an otherwise good intentioned film. It grinds the movie to a halt in places where there really is no need for such talk and turned me off. While the girls and guys are professional on stage, they certainly aren't once the curtains close. I tired rather quickly of their off color remarks and fast-forwarded past some of them. They added nothing whatsoever to the film and the DVD suffers for it.
There is a special feature section that covers the history of stepping back to some African tribes that had rituals involving stepping as part of the routine. I still say when you see someone raise a leg and bring it down hard on the ground without moving further ahead, that's not stepping, that's stomping.
I was put off by the entire movie and have watched it a second time just to make sure I was right about my feelings; they are the same.
