Step By

Step by Step (1982-1989) is a study of girls and their mothers at a dancing school in North Shields, in North East of England, and their later lives after leaving the school. First published in 1989 and long out of print, this new edition of Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen’s classic book has been extensively revised by Sirkka. It is printed in tritone to ensure the highest quality of the images in comparison to the original book. Sirkka followed the lives of the dancing daughters and their dance mothers over a six-year period, seeing how their dreams and their dancing came to sustain them in their tougher personal realities. Step by Step includes their insightful and witty narratives and explores their growing awareness of the challenges they face as women in their particularly challenging urban environment.This series was a strong influence on the development and writing of Lee Hall’s play Dancer, which became the cult coming-of-age film Billy Elliot.