2024 was a fruitful season for Knox Community Street Dance (KCSD) and its collective members. We met new faces, saw new styles, and slapped our soles on every surface imaginable. But now as we enter a new year, KCSD is practicing the other side of dance— rest.

One of the most critical lessons of a movement artist is knowing when to restore. For many dancers, learning restoration comes at the cost of injury. A time when the body pushes the emergency button and suddenly you hear that dreaded crack or feel that pulsating tear. As someone who has learned this hard truth many times before, I advocate for off-seasons for all movement artists. A period of restoration that primes the body to return to its active schedule knowing what it can do versus what will be challenging or unsafe.

To hear what your body has to say about your year— here are a few exercises that can help get your body talking.

Moving Body Scan

Body scans are often used in mediation but they can also be done moving. Start by standing, taking a deep breath, and imagining your body is a Jacob’s ladder toy. You know, the colorful wooden toy that consists of cascading blocks (pictured below). Just like these klick-klacking blocks, you will follow this same pattern with your body.

Drop your head, and just like the illusion of this toy, let your body parts below the chin follow in descending order. Shoulders, chest, tummy, hips, knees, feet. Take your time as you do this a few times, noting any pains or pinches you may feel. These pinpoints of pain will become your goals to work on for the year. They are the parts of you that need some extra maintenance and love.

Feel free to break this down to more complex steps. Maybe your body scan starts with the movement of your jaw, the twisting of your neck, the shrug of your shoulder, into the hinging of your elbows, setting off some flicks of your wrists, and commencing with the bow of your fingers.

The point of the body scan is to bring awareness to every minute movement. Throughout the year we often forget to check in with our joints and muscles and the tiny stories that lie within them waiting to be told. It’s better to hear these stories now than regret ignoring them later.

Stillness

When is the last time you’ve intentionally been still? Most of the time when we cease to move it’s because we’ve been forced to stop. Whether it’s collapsing in bed from exhaustion or doom scrolling on your phone for hours, being still is often not a choice made with joy or intention. But what if being still can be a goal?

For this exercise, we’re going to rely on the environment around us. Find a still object to connect with. This could be your favorite mug, a rock at the park, or a painting at a museum. Whatever it is, pick an object that you find easy to sit with for several minutes.

Once you have it, take a deep breath and embody the stillness of this object. You get to choose how you want to go about this. Whether that’s keeping a soft gaze on the object or positioning your body to mimic its shape, the goal is to remain still. That’s it. After several minutes, check in with yourself. Was there a part of your body that ached to move? Did you catch yourself willing your foot not to tap or resisting the urge to crack your knuckles? This is a stim point— these points in your body will be important focuses to explore in the next exercise.

Stimming Sites

First, let me start by saying this— stimming is for everyone! If you’ve never heard of it, stimming is generally the repetitive carrying out of certain physical movements or vocals to calm or express oneself. Examples could be rocking back and forth, whistling, or jumping up and down. Although stimming is more often performed by neurodiverse individuals who need it as a source of regulation, stimming is done by all— and can become a powerful technique of restorative exploration in one’s movement practices.

In this exercise, we are going to take the stim points from the previous exercise and use them in a repetitive manner. So if your stim point while doing the stillness exercise was your hands, move them! Clap, wiggle your fingers, do jazz hands, and shake your hands until you feel called to stop. Or put on your favorite song and move your stim point to the length of a song. Flap your arms, shake your head, pat your thighs. This exercise is meant to be pleasing, fun, and allow you to activate energy that is begging to be moved within your body.

These movement exercises, paired with regular stretching and therapy strength exercises, will give you an off-season that informs and better how you move in your on-season.

Stay in KCSD’s Orbit!

• Learn more at Knoxcommunitystreetdance.com

• Follow KCSD on Instagram and Facebook

• Join the collective and dance with us: KCSD Event Schedule

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