Some time last year Flora invited us to the Viennese Rope Festival. Reading the program, I absolutely wanted to meet Kamijoo Saki. She is a most interesting rope master, owner of a bar by Osaka, guitarist and singer of a rock band. She is considered one of the fastest riggers (truly fast! :) and she gave me most precious insights to her way of using ropes, and some secret tricks for performance.
Schnucki das Rennpferd and I performed a new version of SHIBARI EXPRESS on Saturday night. For these 30 minutes we tried an unconventional progression in the air, with an super high suspension point. Discussing late into the nights how to integrate more circus-like suspensions into a theatrical setting and still finding a sensual connexion.. We ended up a cat tying dog :)
The festival a slightly challenging frame, since the audience was rather traditional (even though the organisers are not!). Which yea, in bondage terms still means strong guys tying girls!
Except there was this really sympathetic group from Düsseldorf who came across as frankly open :) , and of course the experimental group Vienna Thermostat, and also Yoroi Nicolas with his partner I much enjoyed watching.
Another favourite performance was Barkas’ and Manuela’s. Both being simply good performers, and super sweet in how they made a sort of tango-seduction story around advanced and playful Shibari, I love seeing how clear Barkas guides his ropes.
We also did two days of Kamijoo Saki’s workshops. One was meant to be a masters class with focus on ‘Japanese Torture Bondage’, a rather different approach than Yoga and Shibari.
Together with Joy, her translator, and a Japanese ‘model’, they made an extremely charming team! She talked a lot about the historical reasons for this rough (especially from the outside) idea of bondage, which for her is still the real Shibari, in contrast to a sort of wellness approach prevalent in Europe.
(Yes! I am reconsidering my ‘general care approach’ at the moment, but certainly keep valuing it for the right moments! ) Unfortunately the masters class was quiet poorly attended, and non of the other Viennese masters were there, and I keep wondering why?
Other than that I thought a spontaneous self-suspension workshop on Saturday. A funny and mixed crowed of people. Some of them kept tying themselves all afternoon. Especially this younger guy, which was touching, since normally its still more a woman thing. But yea, things are changing ;) !
Back to Berlin with a stack of new input to experiment and digest. Here are some moments, and more photos to come…
