FedEx Flex

If you're on the job and ever need an idea on how to kill some downtime, try to deliver some of these dynamic moves.

Photo by Deidre Schoo

Ray cues up "Backseat Freestyle" by Kendrick Lamar on his smart phone. He presses play and begins to glide along the steps of the Downtown Brooklyn courthouse.

Ray is with Scorp and Jigsaw. They're all "flex" dancers from Brooklyn, and they are all employed by FedEx. Sometimes the FedEx flex dancers meet up in Downtown Brooklyn after work on their way home from the company warehouse in Manhattan to the East New York area. There are about half a dozen who work at the the courier delivery service, and they're well known around the warehouse. With a few days notice, their supervisors usually give them time off to attend auditions.

"Flex" began in Brooklyn about fifteen years ago and often incorporates narrative elements to tell the story of the streets through dance. Flex's moves include gliding, bonebreaking, pausing, connecting, waving and getting low.

There's a lot of downtime for the FedEx flex dancers with their work "waiting for elevators, waiting in elevators" an…