Queer Stretch: caring for the queer body

“I started Queer Stretch because I decided to give as much of my knowledge and skills to my community,” says Ellie Phillips, circus performer and coach.

“I aim to offer a space in which queer people can come and gently reconnect with themselves in a less stressful and demanding environment than say a gym would provide.”

Ellie Phillips, known professionally as Ellie Acrobat, performs contemporary and cabaret style circus across the UK. Their performance work primarily focusing on acrobatics and contortion, integrated with burlesque.

They also work as a coach, teaching youth and online classes.

Queer Stretch is an all levels welcome community stretch class that Ellie started during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I take the years of knowledge and skills accumulated through my circus training to provide fun non-competitive stretching for an hour and a half once a week,” Ellie says. “It keeps me on my toes to keep creating fun and new ways to stretch that incorporate more simplified versions of my training.

“Queer Stretch is a culmination of my acrobatic work and the community that supports me.”

Ellie created Queer Stretch to give back to their community. Photo: Seb Peters

Ellie, who is 24 and lived in Greenbank for six years, wanted to give something back to the LGBTQ+ community. As they use stretch as a therapeutic tool, they wanted to share it with other queer people, saying: “I thought sharing that with those around me was a fantastic way to connect especially since we were all locked down when I started running the sessions in June.”

Held over Zoom, each session includes a check-in with participants, a warm up, the main stretching session, and a cool down.

“My teaching style is very descriptive,” says Ellie. “I will physically show and talk through the exercises giving as many verbal cues and variations as possible.

“I also like to focus more on how the stretch feels for the individual rather than what it’s ‘supposed’ to look like.”

Ellie wants to continue growing Queer Stretch alongside their performance and youth work, and is weighing up the pros and cons of starting in-person classes once it is safe to do so, saying: “Of course, an actual in person class would provide benefits for me as a teacher in terms of helping everyone find the right connection to the stretch.

“But I feel as though there is something slightly more accessible to Zoom and online classes including attendees personal privacy, location and comfortability.”

Queer Stretch is a weekly class paid for by donations. Photo: Seb Peters

The sessions remains donation-only and a safe place for all queer people to come together, unwind and care for their bodies, no matter their skill level or circumstance.

“Queer Stretch is my passion project, I’ve been developing it this year and I love it for it’s simplicity,” Ellie says.

“It’s is something that I love teaching and I hope that I can continue passing down my knowledge and skills for the foreseeable future.”

Main photo: Seb Peters

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