Things to Do in Charleston

Mary White believes in the power of movement to rehabilitate both bodies and minds. As an alternative health expert who has been practicing for almost 20 years, she relies on an integration of yoga, massage, and water movement therapy to put clients on the path to wellness. Her programs are entirely inclusive, welcoming yoga beginners to experience the same restorative poses that have benefitted athletes and irreparably tangled acrobat pairs.

Inside the studio, a blend of styles—including Kundalini, Bikram, and Vinyasa flow—merge with Pilates and muscle-specific stretches. The combination of motion-based techniques works to combat pain and recurring ailments as it hones enough mental focus to defuse a bomb while stressed out by the fact that you’re in a cartoon in the first place. Mary strives to dispense her teachings to walk-in students as well as specific therapy groups, including Alzheimer's patients and single women in need of support.

At Breathe Pilates Studio, the BASI-certified instructors lead men and women through private or semi-private classes using Pilates reformer equipment. Their approach combines fluid, controlled movements with breath that builds inner strength, while focusing on flexibility and strength training to create long, lean muscles. The classes are ideal for injured athletes, beginner exercisers, or anyone who doesn’t have the unitard required for lifting heavy weights. Along with a variety of Pilates classes, the instructors also lead cardio kickboxing, Booty Barre™, and jump classes, which add high-intensity cardio to the Pilates work on reformers.

Though built only in 2011, the nonprofit Redux Contemporary Art Center’s new 12,000-square-foot facility stays bustling all year, hosting six to eight free exhibitions in two galleries. After taking in the artwork, visitors can attend numerous free events, such as artist talks, film screenings, panels, and concerts. More than 100 classes foster artistic inclinations throughout the year as local qualified instructors help students master disciplines such as painting, drawing, and printmaking.

Redux's galleries stay full thanks in part to its 22 private artist studios, which accommodate emerging and mid-career artists with up to 240 square feet of creative space. Twenty-four-hour studio passes grant access to Redux’s darkroom, print studio, and woodshop. To encourage a sense of community, artists can participate in quarterly critiques, attend visiting-artist lectures, and debate their studio neighbors on artistic controversies such as whether Michelangelo’s David is as good as the earlier one he sculpted from Play-Doh.

When the Charleston Museum was founded in 1773, South Carolina was still a British colony. Today, the museum is itself a historical gem, surviving both the American Revolution and Civil War and acquiring an astounding collection of South Carolinian artifacts along the way. Nine permanent exhibits include the Armory, brimming with antique weaponry, and the Lowcountry History Hall, which chronicles the land's metamorphosis from a tribal society into an agricultural empire, telling the story with early trading goods, slave badges, and pottery. Temporary exhibits change regularly, keeping visitors on their toes in the same way changing cell phone numbers every 24 hours does.

The museum extends its history-preserving mission to two area homes: the 19th-century Joseph Manigault House, once home to a wealthy rice plantation owner, and the Heyward-Washington House, where George Washington once stayed during a weeklong visit to the city. Restored rooms, period pieces, and loudly snoring grandfather clocks await guests during scheduled tours.

It was February 17, 1864. The USS Housatonic floated in Charleston Harbor atop calm, cold waters. Below the surface, a group of Confederate soldiers sweated bullets as they cranked the propellers of the H. L. Hunley, speeding toward the Union's Housatonic on a historic mission: they would become the first submarine crew ever to sink an enemy ship. A 135-pound torpedo struck the Housatonic's stern, detonating a fiery explosion that sank the vessel within minutes. The Hunley then surfaced just long enough for the crew to flash a blue magnesium light, signaling to fellow forces on the shore that the mission succeeded and the submarine would return. And it did—but not until almost 140 years later, when it was raised from the harbor's sandy bottom on August 8, 2000, after author Clive Cussler discovered the wreck intact.

Today, the leaders of the nonprofit H. L. Hunley Submarine seek to conserve, restore, and ultimately exhibit this historic vessel, as well as solve the mystery of how it completed its mission only to vanish moments later. They welcome visitors to see the submarine in its current condition—within a 90,000-gallon conservation tank—and educate guests on the vessel's many details. Guides walk guests through features such as the manual-propulsion system and automatic moon roof, and illuminate exhibits such as a lifesize model from the TNT movie The Hunley.

At Island Fitness Studio, bodies learn to defy physics, becoming at once firm and bendable. That's because the instructors specialize in tightening cores and enhancing reach. Their group Pilates, yoga, and Beyond Barre sessions coach muscles in the art of balance, extending limbs upward during hot Vinyasa sequences and leveraging focused, dance-inspired stretches against a ballet barre. Other classes, such as TRX suspension training and spinning, complement these flexing routines with resistance and cardio workouts.

Power Pilates–certified teachers also lead private apparatus sessions. They familiarize clients with the Reformer, Tower, Wunda Chair, and other props, all of which develop patrons' posture and strength more safely than fusing steel beams to their skeletons. Regardless of the number of people involved in a lesson, the guides personalize their approach to suit varying goals and fitness levels. The studio can even furnish advanced students with Power Pilates and Beyond Barre certifications.