FlexN, also spelled as Flexing, is a style of street dance from Brooklyn, New York that is characterized by rhythmic Brukup/Dancehall performed and incorporated element's like pauzN ,konnectN,GlidN,Getlow,Bonebreaking and hat tricks.Their performance for FlexN has storytelling showmanship,2015-18 FlexN @ Park armory stamped the culture to make FlexN Global.
Origins
Before FlexN gained mainstream exposure, it started out at the home of a couple called Rocky and Sandra Cummings.[1] In 1992, the couple created a talent show and a local cable TV show in New York City, called 'Flex N Brooklyn'.[2] The dance roots are traced back to reggae, dancehall, and "...a chopped-up instrumental called the 'Volume' riddim".[3] The producers of the new genre refer to it as FDM, Flex Dance Music.[3] Unlike other street dance styles originating in the United States, FlexN did not come from hip-hop dance, funk music, or hip-hop culture. It evolved from a Jamaican style of street dance called bruk-up.[4][5][6][7] In a 2009 interview with WireTap magazine, dancer Stefan "Mr. Wiggles" Clemente described bruk-up as a "reggae style of animation."[6]
Variations
FlexN is represented by 8 movement styles, with flexers often mixing the styles.
Bone-breaking[8] is characterized by rhythmic contortionist movement.
Bruk Up,[9] “broken” in Jamaican Patois, is a style that resembles movement of broken limbs.
Connecting (K'nect'N),[10] is often compared to tutting, but is of different origins than popping.
Get Lo[11] integrates movements on the floor and the levels in between.
Grooving[12] is the foundation of the flow of FlexN with roots in Jamaincan dancehall, characterized by rhythmic movements that can be subtle or aggressive.
Gliding[13] is a style of illusion of air walking, sliding, and floating, using hand placements, body movement, and foot placement.
Hat Tricks[14] is a style that utilizes the hat for illusions, concepts, and animations.
Pausing (Pauzn)[15] is characterized by discrete movement similar to a movie watched frame by frame.
The 2013 independent film Flex Is Kings documents the lives of several flexers over a two-year period leading up to a dance competition called BattleFest.[19]Flex Is Kings was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival.[7] FlexN was also the subject of a French online dance show called "Puma the Quest".[20] In 2014, The New Yorker published a seven-page article about flex dancer Saalim "Storyboard P" Muslim.[21]
^"Flexing: the 'bone-breaking' dance craze that bubbled up from Brooklyn". The Guardian. 6 July 2015. They let hundreds of people into their home," says Gray. "Sandra used to cook for us, spaghetti and Kool-Aid. It's always been a big circle of people coming together, making a change and doing something for the youth.
^Johnson, Kristy (December 2, 2009). "Britney's Dance Dream Team". Dance Informa. Retrieved November 10, 2010. Living in Brooklyn and with my family being West Indian, I was into a lot of Dancehall Reggae music. I ended up being part of a show in Brooklyn called 'Flex N Brooklyn' that created another dance style we call Flexing, which evolved from a style called 'The Bruk Up' from Jamaica.
^Harrison, Darryl (October 26, 2009). "Bone flexing in Brooklyn". New York Post. Retrieved November 10, 2010. The biggest misconception is that flexing or our style came from hip hop, and it didn't. It actually came from reggae. It came from 'bruk up.'
^ abLove, Paulino (March 21, 2009). "Power Moves: Turf and Flex Dancers Build Bicoastal Bonds". WireTap Magazine. Archived from the original on February 14, 2011. Retrieved November 10, 2010. It's based on a reggae style of animation," explains Steffan "Mr. Wiggles" Clemente, one of the event's judges. "People compared it to poppin', but it's a reggae style of poppin'.
^ abBrun-Lambert, David (December 9, 2013). "Flexing: Brooklyn Goes Hard". RedBull.com. Archived from the original on December 26, 2013. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
^Sierra, Gabrielle (March 26, 2015). "A Brooklyn Dancer Flexes His Talents and Social Activism With New Show at Park Avenue Armory". brooklynbased.com. Gray specializes in pausing, a style he created after losing a battle, coming home and throwing on a tape of himself dancing. "We will often record ourselves and watch it backwards, try to mimic that rewind style," he says. "But I pressed pause and watched it move inch by inch. And I was like, 'I want to dance like that.'"
^"Gas-Masked Dancers Hit The Subway (VIDEO)". Huffington Post. September 17, 2011. Retrieved March 5, 2012. This music video, by YAK Films for King Bones and DJ Aaron, shows two shirtless dancers/contortionists in gas masks intertwining with each other... it's a mesmerizing, and slightly unsettling, performance.