‘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.
Author Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen 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 Stepincludes their insightful and witty narratives and explores their growing awareness of the challenges they face as women in a particularly challenging urban environment.
The book was hugely significant in the making of the cult coming-of-age film Billy Elliot. Lee Hall, the film’s writer, gave the book to the art direction team and all those working on the film’s production as a guide for making the film. As he has said “almost every frame of Billy Elliotwas somehow influenced by Step by Step.”
Born in Finland, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen came to study filmmaking in London and became a founder member of Amber Film & Photography Collective, based since 1969 in Newcastle upon Tyne in North East England. Sirkka’s seminal documentation of Byker, the close-knit community of Newcastle upon Tyne that was her home for seven years while destined for wholesale redevelopment led to national recognition as a key photographic and filmic account of rich working class culture on the eve of its destruction.
First published in 1989 and long out of print, this new edition of classic book has been extensively revised by Sirkka. It will be printed in tritone to ensure the highest quality of the images.