Step Up Dance Crews: Every Crew, Leader and Rival

Step Up (2006) never gives its Baltimore friends a crew name, yet the trio at its start works much like one: Tyler Gage (Channing Tatum), Mac Carter (Damaine Radcliff) and Skinny Carter (De'Shawn Washington) get by together on the streets, and a night of vandalism at the Maryland School of the Arts lands Tyler a sentence of cleaning duty there. That punishment puts him in the hallways where Nora Clark (Jenna Dewan), a ballet student, is rehearsing for her senior showcase.

The ensemble that actually performs forms later. Nora begins to imagine her piece as a group number, and Tyler recruits younger students from the school to fill it out. Meanwhile the old friendship takes a heavy blow: Skinny takes a car from a dangerous local rival and is shot and killed, and the loss makes Tyler and Mac question the path they are on. The showcase routine, danced with those younger students, is the nearest the first film comes to a crew number. Disney's D23 notes the film was shot on location in Baltimore. For the two leads, see tyler gage step up and nora step up.

The 410 is an unsanctioned Baltimore crew that competes in an underground contest called The Streets, and it is the first named crew in the series. Andie West (Briana Evigan), who is mourning her mother and living with her guardian, Sarah, dances with them until her friend Tyler urges her to audition for the Maryland School of the Arts. The crew is led by Tuck (Black Thomas).

The 410 turn on Andie as soon as they learn she is studying at the school, and they throw her out. The rivalry escalates when Chase Collins (Robert Hoffman) plays a prank on Tuck and the 410 respond by attacking Chase and wrecking the school's dance studio. That damage gets Andie expelled by the school's director, Blake Collins (Will Kemp), even though she takes the blame to protect her new friends. The 410 are the film's loudest reminder that Andie's two worlds do not mix easily, and step up 2 the streets uses them as the street side of that divide. For her full story, see andie step up.

After the 410 push her out, Andie West and Chase Collins build a new crew from outcast students at the Maryland School of the Arts. It answers a simple question: what happens when a street dancer and a trained school dancer join forces? It is also the crew that carries Step Up 2: The Streets to its finish.

The group skips the school's fundraiser on the night they hear that The Streets is happening, and they go to compete. Blake Collins, who is Chase's older brother, goes looking for his students and finds them at the competition. Seeing the dancing there, he accepts that street dance is a real art form and lets Andie back into the school. The crew stays together as her supportive group of friends, and the ending points to her keeping both her street roots and her formal training. Briana Evigan returns as Andie in Step Up All In, where she joins the LMNTRIX.

The Pirates are a New York City crew led by Luke Katcher (Rick Malambri), and they are the heart of Step Up 3D. They live in a converted warehouse that is behind on its payments and could soon be sold at auction, so Luke plans to win the World Jam championship to save it. Moose (Adam Sevani) arrives in the city to start at NYU, wins a dance battle and is invited to join, along with a talented newcomer named Natalie (Sharni Vinson).

The crew breaks apart when the warehouse is lost to foreclosure and Luke disbands it. Moose then rebuilds the Pirates with Camille Gage (Alyson Stoner) and friends from the MSA Crew, and with Natalie's help on their routine they take the World Jam title. Step Up 3D (2010), directed by Jon M. Chu, cost $30 million and earned about $159 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo, and it was shot in 3D in New York City. At the end, Luke passes his sneakers to Moose, which marks Moose as the crew's new leader. See moose step up and step up 3d.

The Samurai are the rival crew in Step Up 3D, led by Julien (Joe Slaughter), who was once a Pirate himself. He was pushed out after a betrayal tied to gambling, and the bad blood between him and Luke drives the second half of the film. Natalie hides the fact that she is Julien's sister, and when that comes out, Luke feels betrayed and she pulls away from him.

Julien ends up owning the warehouse the Pirates lost, and he has lured away some former members. He offers to give the building back if the Pirates lose the contest, which they refuse. The Samurai then meet the Pirates in the World Jam final and lose. In my opinion, they work as a villain crew because the stakes are personal: a building, a friendship and a sister are on the line, not just a trophy.

The MSA Crew is the group of friends who help Moose rebuild the Pirates in Step Up 3D. After his argument with Camille and the breakup of the Pirates, he makes up with her through a dance on the street and then rebuilds the crew with Camille and friends from the MSA Crew.

Their role is practical: without those dancers, Moose does not have a full crew to put on the World Jam stage. The film gives the group little more than that, so it is best read as a supporting crew rather than a rival or a headline act. If you want to spot returning faces from earlier films, the step up cast page is the place to check.

The Mob is the only crew that appears in two films, and it belongs to Sean Asa (Ryan Guzman) and his best friend Eddy (Misha Gabriel). In Step Up Revolution, they are Miami hotel waiters by day who take over public spaces, starting with a street takeover on Ocean Drive, and post the results online to win views and a cash prize. Emily Anderson (Kathryn McCormick) joins the crew while hiding that her father is a developer, and Eddy later exposes her, which leads to a fight and Sean's arrest. The Mob then teams up with another local crew and crashes the development announcement with a dance protest, and the crew's online fame earns a paid deal with a sportswear brand.

In Step Up All In, The Mob moves to Los Angeles, gets rejected at audition after audition and loses a battle to the Grim Knights. The rest of the crew goes home, and they meet Sean again at The Vortex in Las Vegas, where they join forces with the LMNTRIX for the finals. See sean step up and emily step up revolution.

The Grim Knights are the rival crew in Step Up All In, and their battle win over The Mob is what sends Sean's friends home. Their leader is Jasper, and the crew is also entered in The Vortex in Las Vegas, so the two groups meet again in the contest.

The film then makes them part of a larger problem. Two crew members find out that the contest host, Alexxa Brava (Izabella Miko), is secretly involved with Jasper and is rigging the competition. The Grim Knights do not win in the end, because the producers overrule Alexxa and name the LMNTRIX winners. Earlier rivals were a physical threat (the 410) or a personal one (the Samurai), whereas here the threat is a fixed contest.

The LMNTRIX is the crew Sean Asa assembles in Step Up All In, and it ends up winning The Vortex and its three year Las Vegas show. Sean is the only Mob member who stays in Los Angeles after the rejections, and he gets by cleaning at a dance center owned by Moose's grandparents, with a supply closet for a bedroom. Together with Moose he gathers Andie West (Briana Evigan) and other dancers, and a submitted video earns them a spot in The Vortex.

The trouble is internal. During a showcase battle with The Mob, Sean asks Andie to attempt a move she is not ready for, and she leaves the floor. The LMNTRIX still take that round, but Sean has to make amends with The Mob and with Andie before the finals, where the two crews share the stage. Sean and Andie finish the routine with the same move that split them, land it and kiss, and the producers name the LMNTRIX winners. Camille returns once she and Moose make up. For the film, see step up all in.

In my opinion, The Mob is the best Step Up crew, because it is the only one that grows across two films. In Step Up Revolution it is a flash mob crew with a point to make on Ocean Drive, and in Step Up All In it has to deal with rejection, a lost battle and a split, which gives it more shape than any rival.

My full order is below, and it could be argued that the middle places are close.

1. The Mob. Two films, a clear identity and a real arc from stunt crew to partner crew.
2. The Pirates. The warehouse gives them something concrete to lose, and Moose taking over from Luke is the series' best handover.
3. The LMNTRIX. The finals trick that caused the fight with Andie is a satisfying payoff, though the crew itself is mostly Sean, Andie and Moose.
4. The 410. They are a frightening street crew in Step Up 2: The Streets, but they exist mainly to pressure Andie.
5. The Samurai. Julien's grudge is personal and well set up, even if the crew is thin beyond him.
6. The Grim Knights. They beat The Mob and then become part of a fixed contest, so they feel more like a plot device than a crew.
7. The MSA Crew. Useful and brief, with the least screen identity.

If you are choosing tonight's film with younger viewers, all five carry a PG-13 rating in the US, so check the story beats before you press play. To see these crews at their best, go to best step up dance scenes.