Finding your body

how do we navigate movement and gender as queer people?

From the football pitch to the dance floor, different forms of physical expression carry different gender codes and for queer people, navigating both these codes as well as what movement itself feels right can be daunting. This panel brings together people whose physical lives span different physical movement spaces from sports, dance and performance, to talk honestly about where they've felt free to inhabit their bodies and where they haven't.

ex. Why do some queer women feel more themselves in spaces traditionally coded as masculine and less so in spaces coded as feminine f.eks dance? What does it mean to perform your sport in a way that feels true to who you are? And what would it look like to have genuinely open physical spaces where movement isn't gendered at all? hopefully this will be an honest, personal conversation about bodies, belonging and the quiet politics of how we move and where we are allowed to move and explore what feels right for us.

ideas for questions/discussion arc:
personal expression:
How much of the way you move is conscious expression, and how much is just... you?
Have you ever changed the way you move to feel more like yourself — or to fit in?
Is there a difference between how you move when you feel safe and how you move when you don't?
When did you first become aware that the way you moved felt like it said something about who you were?
Was there a moment — in sport, dance, play — where movement felt like a form of self-discovery?
what are we striving for?
What would a genuinely genderless/or non pressured physical space feel like to you?
Have you ever experienced a moment — in sport, dance, play — where gender just fell away completely? What was that like?
What would you tell a younger queer person who is still figuring out their expression?
spaces

Have you ever found a physical space that felt like yours — and what made it feel that way?
Have you ever lost access to a space, or never felt welcome in one, because of how it was gendered or coded?
What happens to your body when you're in a space where you don't feel free to move the way you want to?
Have you ever adapted the way you move to fit into a space — and what did that cost you?
Is there a version of yourself that only exists in certain physical spaces?
Have you ever experienced a moment where movement felt completely free — where identity and body just aligned?
What does it feel like when a space actually allows you to explore movement on your own terms?
final thoughts
What would you want physical spaces to look like for the next generation of queer people finding their bodies?