Written by: Robert Adetuyi & Gregory Anderson
Starring: Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Ne-Yo, Darrin Henson, Brian White, Laz Alonso
Rating: [3.5/5]
Finding community on a college campus stands as one of the integral aspects educators focus on when students enter this stage of their educational lives. It serves the students by helping them have a sense of belonging and as a result, they are less likely to want to leave and take the revenue they provide the university with them providing quite the win-win. For decades, fraternities and sororities have filled this particular gap and as Stomp the Yard demonstrates, it opens takes it to the next level in the competitive side.
After experiencing the horrific death of his brother following a dance-off, D.J. (Columbus Short) gets the opportunity to live with his aunt and uncle as well as attend Truth University in Atlanta. When there he quickly grows an attraction for April (Meagan Good) but she has a boyfriend named Grant (Darrn Henson), part of Mu Gamma Xi who becomes quite adversarial with him. With the chance to join a fraternity to take part in step competitions, D.J. has the chance to join the rival fraternity, Theta Nu Theta.
Opening up with quite the tragic incident following an energetic dance-off, this feature demonstrates the perils of operating in circles with these dangerous individuals. Something that completely gets flipped when he arrives on a college campus. Instead of fearing someone will retaliate with violence, it shifts to the social hierarchy on these campuses where individuals get quite prideful in a different manner. Thus we have the street dancing D.J. has grown accustomed to excelling in and now with the opportunity to compete in a completely different sphere with quite the rivalries in place. He jumps right in the middle of it, mostly revolving around his affection towards April.
Entering the arena of step dancing provides something a bit different than what he’s accustomed to and the clash between these two styles appears with the president of Theta Nu Theta, Sylvester (Brian J. White). It certainly presents a divide within the Black community where Sylvester does not want that style of dancing associated with his fraternity seeing it as above all of that. Certainly a difference in class with this approach as these individuals live different lifestyles to what D.J. experienced before moving to Atlanta to attend this university. This makes the integration of D.J. into the plot something allowing this change to open up boundaries not explored before making everything better.
When it comes to the dancing as with any dance movie, we need to assess exactly what we came into this project for and Stomp the Yard delivers. It certainly utilizes a unique editing style in the way it presents the dance sequences with some close-ups of the individuals doing a solo in front of the other group. This appears at its most evident in the opening dance sequence where his frantic approach really drives up the intensity of what we see take place with these characters. Several of the shots do come with some heavy-handedness like focusing on the guy in the opening scene with the teardrop tattoo. Quite obviously the man would cause some violence later on, which inevitably came true. Getting to the step competition, they truly show off the moves of these men and what they bring to the table. Bringing quite a level of energy to these moments demonstrating what lies on the line for who ultimately wins and how much it means to these individuals.
Stomp the Yard presents itself as quite the view of the college experience for D.J. where a specific niche area within fraternities and sororities completely consumes these characters and their perspective of their experience. It certainly ups the ante in presenting how seriously it gets taken making me realize that perhaps all of the money coming from the dues these students pay to take part of this goes to fund these elaborate functions. I jest there, but this feature successfully takes us into this world demonstrating some excellent dance moves and quite the little journey for D.J. to confront after losing his brother tragically. We go through this path with him as he enters an entirely new arena on multiple fronts and navigates in a way making him an intriguing character to follow.
Films with Josh 
