“This is storytelling as dancing,” explains Michael Beach Nichols, co-director of new feature-length documentary Flex is Kings. “You’re not watching different dancers doing the same moves. Each performer summons his background and displays an autobiography of movement.” The flexing scene originated on the streets of East New York, Brooklyn, its jaw-dropping dance having roots in Jamaican bruk up. Limbs are contorted, popping bones out of sockets and leaving them dangling and slack. In the unseen routine performed for NOWNESS, dancers Bones the Machine and DJ Aaron conjure strange, exoskeletal creatures in their own take on flexing. Filmed over two years, Flex is Kings documents the culture around the street dance in the tradition of breaking, krumping and twerking, including flex’s answer to the competitive Harlem vogue-offs, Battlefest. “New York is always on the forefront because there's no room for mediocrity, you'll get eaten alive,” says co-director Deidre Schoo, who premiered the film at last year's Tribeca Film Festival. “I think the rich history of street dance—from b-boy culture up through flex—means it's a viable outlet for kids to express themselves.”

Flex is Kings is screening at Village East Cinema, NYC through April 17 and at Alamo Drafthouse on April 11.