About Me
My story
Trigger warning- sexual assault, mental health, anti Blackness
I’ve always had a natural, spiritual, and ancestral tie and draw towards the art of stretching and twerking. It has been a natural way for me to self regulate my emotions and become intimate and take agency in my body after the effects of white supremacy, capitalism and surviving sexual assault. I often struggled in feeling present in my body as I later developed complex-ptsd and somatic movement was a lifeline that I used to feel whole and safe in my body again. Like many people, I had repressed my childhood trauma and stored these different feelings of shame, fear and anxiety in different parts of my body. Through movement and other healing sources, I began to release these feelings and incorporate somatic movement into my daily practise to self regulate and release. I found freedom in my movement and joy in being able to self-stimulate through twerk. Twerking was not only a powerful tool for me to take agency in my body but also an ode to my Black American and west African ancestors. Twerking through the white gaze has been hyper sexualised and demonised but I denounce these notions and allowed twerk to heal me and exist in its natural free form. I found twerk complemented my yoga practice perfectly as it allowed me to release tension and strengthen my hip area, grounding me to the earth, while also bringing awareness to my root and sacral area. My practice helped my heal and I wanted to share that healing with others that needed it. During 2020 I began teaching free online somatic stretch classes to other members of the Black community that where dealing with the effects of the hyper visibility of Black Lives Matter in the news cycle and global Dehumanising of Black folk, and needed a space to feel empowered and vulnerable. This is how stretch and release was born, through community, love and healing. I want to continue this legacy by offering discretionary rates to Black and Brown low income folk, and by making sure the most marginalised folk are centred in my classes and practice. I constantly derive healing and tranquility from my art, and advocate for others to engage in such practices.
Who we are
Stretch and release is founded and taught by Jay X (they/them) based in London. Jay is an art-ivist, coach, performer and LGBTQIA+ educator and training yoga teacher under Dianne Bondy. They are passionate about making safer spaces and being accountable for any harm caused in their space. They are aware that they benefit from colorism, texturism, ableism, fat phobia, ageism, Intersex discrimination and transmisogyny and are always appreciative of any call ins to make the space and them more safe for marginalized people. Jay is inspired and in awe of community and passionate about fostering a caring community through stretch and release. Jays lived experiences as a biracial Black, trans, neurodiverse, working class person has meant that community has been essential to their survival and they want to reflect the kindness and strength community has showed them in their work. Stretch and release is proud to have collaborated with a range of different organizations, events and individuals including UK Black pride, Theatre foremen festival, Yewande 103, Ella Mesma company and more.
Who we'RE FOR
Stretch and release is for anyone that wants to participate. We have certain classes that are only open to certain groups of people as we create intentional spaces to act as landing sites for people to decompress from the outside world, and we have classes that are open to all. We also collaborate with schools, organisations, businesses and individuals that could benefit from our workshops.
Stretch and release values
We value compassion, kindness and freedom and try to create safer spaces that encompass this.
We want classes to be a safer space where people feel seen, heard and valued.
We believe that everyone deserves to feel release and comfort in their Body, including those that exist in intersections that are excluded from mainstream wellness spaces.
We support peoples boundaries and do not believe in shaming and pressuring people to do certain movements, instead we support people knowing and respecting their own limits and comfort.
We understand that everyone’s body works differently, and adjusting moves to fit different people and their ability, shape and age is vital.
We are anti-Diet and do not advocate for fatphobia in the wellness industry.
We believe in listening to your body and mind intuitively. If that means stepping out of class because of something e.g.; chronic pain, gender dysphoria , feeling triggered is stopping the class from being enjoyable for you, then we support that decision.
We believe in using inclusive language, and changing our language if someone finds it offensive.
We believe accountability is an act of love, and are willing and appreciative of any calls for accountability.
We believe that we are all on a path of learning and unlearning, and appreciate what our students bring to the space.
Accessibility
We have lots of different adaptions of poses which include movement that can be done in a wheelchair or chair. We understand the learning process and body awareness can be different for some neuro diverse folk so we have different styles of teaching that align with the students style of learning. We also can have frequent breaks if requested. We try to make our classes as accessible as possible with the resources we have which sadly means we don’t have a bsl interpreter. We understand that this is not okay and hope that when our business expands we will have the resources to employ someone’s to sign. In the meantime we are very happy for clients to bring their own bsl interpreter, and we strongly advise organisations that we collaborate with that have larger resources to provide a sign language interpreter. We have live captions in our online meetings and operate a trauma informed space. If you have any specific accessibility requirements or triggers you would like us to be aware of them please contact us at enquiries. We understand finance is a huge barrier for many wanting to access wellness spaces, so we offer discretionary rates for by BIPOC low income folk.