Are you a transgender circus artist curious about safe chest binding practices? A circus educator looking to better support transgender artists? Or a training center eager to create an inclusive space? Whether you're directly involved or simply interested in learning more, join us for an ACE Discussion on December 10, 2024 at 1pm EST led by Izzi Kessner. This session will provide an in-depth guide on the safety of chest binding in circus arts, based on a comprehensive year-long research project with CRITAC (Centre de recherche, d’innovation et de transfert en arts du cirque).
For the past year, Ecole de Cirque de Quebec student Izzi Kessner and mentor Melanie Stuckey, PhD (CRITAC) have been working on a research project focused on the safety of chest binding practices for transgender individuals within the circus world. They have created a comprehensive guide for circus artists, educators, and spaces, offering a holistic risk framework to support safe chest binding during training. This resource provides crucial information on the physical and psychosocial effects, and offers interactive support for coaches, physiotherapists, and circus spaces to develop inclusive policies. While there is not enough current research available to provide clinical circus-specific guidelines for chest binding best practice, this document offers a collection of current available knowledge, with a lens of lived experience, and a recommended framework for making one’s own binding decisions, and supporting chest binding artists. This document will be available in French soon.
This guide was born from a need to fill the dangerous lack of information supporting our trans circus community. Please share it with anyone who could benefit from this knowledge.
Facilitator: Izzi Kessner
