By admin 
Meeting friends of Elinor Steffy’s at a memorial following her death, Ariel Krystyne Wright kept hearing a similar refrain.
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“All of them kind of said the same thing: She would just walk up to you, introduce herself, say hi and just strike up a conversation,” Wright said. “And she could do that with essentially anybody.”
Steffy, 22, died Jan. 22 when a vehicle struck her in a parking lot at Iron Point Light Rail Station in Folsom after the driver suffered a medical incident and lost control. Steffy lived in Sacramento and was heading to the nearby Hawkins School of Performing Arts where she was a hip-hop dance instructor and worked with Wright, coach of the school’s elite hip-hop team.
Steffy was a well-loved community member whose adult life was just beginning. Months after her death, people like Wright are still helping others come to grips with the tragedy.
‘Such a positive energy’
It was a sad day recently at Step I Dance & Fitness in North Natomas, where Steffy trained for many years before becoming a dance instructor.
People like Lauren Huther came together in the studio to talk about Steffy, who studied hip-hop, jazz dancing and ballet at the school and was part of its competitive team.
“She was such a positive energy,” Huther said. “You could feel her energy before she even walked through the door and her smile. And that’s what I’m going to miss the most is not being able to see her there.”
Steffy began training at Step I about the time she turned 13, a later age than many start dancing, her mother said. Delcy Steffy said that her daughter was “always moving … and had some natural ability and she wanted to try it.”
People at Step I were impressed with Elinor Steffy’s work ethic.
“She worked really, really hard,” said Mary Wright, who is co-owner of Step I and no relation to Ariel Wright. “She was always helpful to others and always had a really positive attitude.”
Elinor Steffy also had an infectious amount of enthusiasm and a willingness to keep trying even when things didn’t go her way in dance. “The other dancers, when they saw her rigidity, her not backing down from trying again … her resilience, that became leadership,” Step I co-owner Pepper Von said. “So we would always pull her to the front.”
Former Sacramento Ballet dancer Alex Cunningham trained Steffy in ballet at Step I.
“I think Elinor was definitely of that vein of student who was like: I’m not totally comfortable doing this yet, but I’m still going to show up and come to class and ask questions and try my hardest,” Cunningham said.
Steffy inspired both fellow dancers and parents. Sheryl Wall saw Steffy, then about age 15, at a year-end recital not long after her son began dancing at Step I. Wall found her dancing magnetic.
“She danced almost like she had an adult soul inside of her,” Wall said.
Steffy’s training led to a teaching role at Hawkins, where she coached children who generally ranged in age from 8 to 12.
“I think her teaching method was really strong with positivity,” Ariel Wright said. “She just led with a lot of positive energy, really trying to boost up the kids and build their confidence.”
Sophia Warren, a childhood friend of Steffy, visited one of her classes and was struck by her interactions with her students.
“I think they felt really safe with her,” Warren said.
At Hawkins, Steffy worked with children such as Maya Levine, 10.
“She knew each one of her students really well, so she knew how to choreograph for her students,” Levine said. “Instead of forcing her style onto us, she would find ways to … combine our styles with her styles to make great choreography.”
What Steffy enjoyed about going to work at Hawkins, her mother said, was the children.
“We talked about the kids all the time,” Delcy Steffy said. “She talked about the kids, funny things they did and said. And yeah, it was the kids and the families, but it was the kids, really.”
Making ‘Good Things to Eat’
Dance was a major part of Elinor Steffy’s life. Another significant part: Her relationship with her mother.
The two opened the restaurant Good Things to Eat on Franklin Boulevard in the summer of 2022. That Elinor Steffy would be willing to do something totally different than dance doesn’t appear to have surprised her mother.
“She had amazing talents in so many different areas, whether it was … chemistry or philosophy or baking or dance or choreography,” Delcy Steffy said.
Lauren Radlinski, who lives around the corner, met Elinor Steffy while she was painting the building before the restaurant’s opening.
“You meet people every once in a while who are just 100% genuine people,” Radlinski said. “That was her to her core.”
Christine Salas, who runs a business near the Curtis Park restaurant with her husband, remembered Steffy fondly. “She was just so vibrant, joyful and full of life,” Salas said. “When you see her, she would smile.”
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The restaurant was takeout-only, featuring a rotating menu of homestyle and eclectic cooking.
“We just made everything from scratch,” Delcy Steffy said. “It was food that we loved to eat. It was food she grew up eating and and loving.”
Radlinski and her partner visited it a few times per month.
“It felt like going into a friend’s house and for whatever reason, they’re making you a meal,” Radlinski said.
The Steffy women were friendly to people who came by Good Things to Eat, such as Kirsten Pringle, who lives nearby and ate there several times. “They made it an effort to learn my name the first time I came in there,” Pringle said. “They recognized me every time after that.”
Elinor Steffy spoke to Comstock’s magazine about the restaurant experience several months after Good Things to Eat opened.
“I don’t think I realized how much people feel the deficit of real food,” she said. “I was happy to know that people appreciated food that way.”
Elinor and Delcy Steffy’s food business extended beyond their restaurant. Adrian Rehn knew the women from the now-closed Oak Park Farmer’s Market, where they sold prepared food such as meat or veggie egg bites.
“I just picture and remember them just being there side by side, chatting with all the customers and the other vendors and being really proud of what they were sharing with the community,” said Rehn, who thought the egg bites were delicious.
Around the last year of her life, Steffy got her own apartment at 25th and V streets in midtown’s Newton Booth neighborhood. She remained close with her mother, reportedly spending the morning before her death at Good Things to Eat before traveling to Folsom for her teaching role at Hawkins.
The restaurant has been closed since Steffy’s death, though her mother said she hopes to reopen.
Leaving a legacy
Delcy Steffy started a GoFundMe campaign almost immediately after Elinor’s death.
“We are raising funds in Elinor’s name to continue her legacy,” she wrote. “We will be opening a non-profit organization to pursue these goals. Your support will help provide dance education, master classes, workshops, and cultural exchange experiences for Sacramento youth.”
The campaign has raised just over $65,000.
Elinor Steffy had been involved with Black Flag, a dance collective that sometimes held informal events at a space next door to Good Things to Eat in the same building. A video posted by Black Flag to its YouTube about three weeks before Steffy’s death showed her dancing to the 2007 T-Pain song, “Bartender” during one of these competitions.
On Feb. 16, Black Flag members held a series of workshops through Sac Dance Lab. A flyer for the event noted that all of its proceeds would go to the memorial fund.
Black Flag member Anthony Wey also helped prepare some of Steffy’s former students for two competitions in May. Another member of the collective, Wren Crisologo helped prepare three of Steffy’s former students with solos performed during these competitions.
“I think about her all the time,” Wey said. “There are songs that remind me of her. I downloaded them onto my phone and I’ll listen to them every other week.”
The Hawkins school keeps a photo of Steffy hanging near the entrance to its studio and also has her photo on its website. The school hosted a tribute to her in June, which Delcy Steffy attended.
For the tribute, some of the children from the school offered messages in a video. The elite hip-hop team and the junior team that Steffy had coached also performed a piece set to “Cranes in the Sky” by Solange Knowles that highlighted grief stages.
“It was just a really great way for our community to kind of come together, dance in her name and just kind of like release some of the feelings that some of the students were feeling,” Ariel Wright said.
Those who danced in the tribute included Scarlett Schnell, 13, who became inspired to be part of the school’s hip-hop troupe after a single class with Steffy.
“I just miss getting to talk to her because she was just a really good person in general,” Schnell said. “Her presence was joyful.”
Delcy Steffy said her daughter had “a remarkable presence” and a lot to offer.
“She was the spark in the room and able to connect people and inspire people to step out of their comfort zones,” she said. “And there’s just a massive hole left where she’s supposed to be.”
She was hopeful about the experiences that the nonprofit she was creating in her daughter’s honor would provide.
“It won’t be as magical as it would be if Elinor was there for them,” she said. “But we’re going to try to keep some of that spark and connection going.”
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The Bee’s Corey Schmidt contributed to this story.