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Izzi worked alongside Melanie Stuckey, PhD, and CRITAC (Centre de recherche, d’innovation et de transfert en arts du cirque, École nationale de cirque Montréal) on a research project focused on the safety of chest binding practices for transgender individuals within the circus world.
They created comprehensive guide for circus artists, educators, and spaces, offering a holistic risk framework to support safe chest binding during training. The 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 (and hopefully more) soon.
With this project, Izzi was invited to present their research as a panelist at Circus and Its Others IV, in Bogota, Colombia, in February 2024. They also presented an ACE discussion of this resource in December of 2024.
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.
For the 2023 Circus International Film Festival, Izzi Kessner was invited to be a judge for the Under 18 category of the festival. They participated in an interview sponsered by Circus Talk about their thoughts on circus, film, and the connections between the two disciplines. You can view the interview through the link above.
Released alongside their first act presentation at Ecole De Cirque De Quebec, Izzi Kessner wrote an essay synthesizing a myriad of trans thoughts they had been having since moving to Quebec city to attend circus school. They based their artistic creation process off of this writing, beginning their act creation by just writing out a bunch of questions on a piece of paper. Izzi is especially interested in seeing how meaning can be conveyed through acts instead of through writing, or how they can combine my interests in formal/academic writing, and circus work.
Izzi Kessner conducted a research project which attempts to offer insight into transgender circus artists’ experiences. After studying the history of gender in Traditional circus, and then examining the state of Contemporary circus today, it becomes evident that there is an absence of representation for transgender circus artists. This absence is made apparent through a critical analysis of Contemporary circus productions with regards to their use of gender.
Six professional transgender circus artists also participated in interviews about their journey in the circus industry. Their words were also transcribed into a circus act, combining artistic explorations with lived experiences. This research offers a case study to understand transgender identity and experience in circus, as well as a manual for inclusive practices to support all performing artists.
As a project for Pride Month 2021, Izzi ventured into the world of video essays, creating this final video on Cirque du Soleil's original production "Zumanity," and on LGBTQ representation in the circus world as a whole.
Izzi Kessner was invited to partake in a filmed conversation between generations of LGBTQ people for ABC7's official LA Pride TV Special. The two hour conversation was reformatted into a twenty minute video, in which they express their experiences as a young LGBTQ individual, especially growing up in Los Angeles.
Izzi Kessner was selected as the Juried Award Winner for the Under 18 Category for their film "Roses and Thorns." The film explored LGBTQ love with the tagline: How do you process after breaking someone's heart? Roses and Thorns explores the journey of queer love, acceptance, and communication post-heartbreak through aerial silk and acro-dance.
Because of this selection, Izzi Kessner participated in an interview on the Circus International Film Festival Instagram Live, which can be viewed here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CNyXTRJg1hs/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Working with Circus Talk, Izzi Kessner interviewed young transgender circus artists from around the world. They focused on the mentality of young trans artists, highlighting their dreams and fears for their futures in the circus industry. The article was released to celebrate Trans Day of Visibility on March 29, 2021.