This series follows daughters and mothers at a small dancing school in coastal northeastern England during the early 1980s. In Step by Step the community’s avocational activities and conversations are explored within the challenges of an industrial and post-industrial environment. The maternal bonding, self-expression and confidence provided by this joyful outlet nurture the girls and women while few other options for advancement or escape were available.

Konttinen’s photographs of the Connell-Brown Dancing School have served as fodder for two films. One, Keeping Time, made in 1983 by the Amber Collective (co-founded by Konttinen) is an experimental drama. The other is the award winning feature film Billy Elliot, inspired by Emma Dowds jumping on her bed on the cover of Konttinen’s Step by Step book (1989). Lee Hall, the film’s writer and a schoolmate of one of the dancers, gave the book to the art directors and all those working on the production as a guide for making the film.