His partner Amy, a dancer turned physical therapist, wants him to marry her, but Nick is afraid to commit and continues to see other women on the side.

Stephen Holden of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, writing that "The Next Step might be described as a kind of backstage Dirty Dancing.

And although the movie has its awkward, unconvincing moments, this portrait of an aging dancer and freewheeling Lothario named Nick Mendez (Rick Negron), who belongs to the heterosexual minority in a field where most of the men are gay, has a sizzling erotic energy.

She criticized the "clunkiness of the film's dramatic plotting", and the "uneven performances, overly literal visual cues [and] hyperbolic ending."

"[2] AllMovie's Sandra Brennan also gave The Next Step two out of five stars, describing it as "an attempt to revive the dance film.