s

Berlin

Tanzpraxis

The finest match: Laurie Young dancing with Naniek K. . Finishing my research with a space and choreographic sketch in the most fortunate community. I learned of Naniek K. through the work Ratu created by Jee Chang for this years Tanztage Festival. They kindly introduced me to a truly royal and felt ur-berliner 81 year old Indonesian dancer and lady. She had more energy than all of us together in the room! ;)
Touching on basic ideas and making space to two rare generations in the spot light. Observing their universes of experience side by side, and a familiar proximity of Asian and Western European philosophies of movement reconciled something for me.
Laurie Young encountered Naniek K. with such grace and responding to her with an emotional clarity which resonated in a tangible time-relationship that I passionately want to continue researching with them!
In the background playing with rhythms of yellow.

More photos soon by Fungi Fung.

Shibari Classes In March

Upcoming workshop: Tuesday March 24, 2026 at Haus Sommer / Uferhallen
Hours: 7-9.30pm

This Light – intermediate class is directed at people with previous bondage/shibari experience, and at newbies who like to start rope work in a small group environment.
We will start with the basics by intuitively following individual rope impulses. When safety principles like body handling, rope management or friction become fluid, we move to more systematic ties. Floor play will gradually be taken to semi-suspension.
There is time to switch roles to deeper understand restriction from both perspectives. The roped experience, as well as the complex skill set of the rigger, in order to create meditative ties or sexy phantasies.

The class material and aesthetic is strongly inspired by Japanese Shibari artists such as Norio Sugiura, Kasumi Horai or Akira Naka. Dasniya has learned from them during several workshops and encounters in Europe and Asia. Another important teaching source is her professional dance and performance practice which includes collaborating with Roméo Castellucci, Florentina Holzinger or the collective Das Helmi. Continuously transforming the traditional ritual for stage or installations Dasniya has been an inspiring rope artist beyond the Berlin community since 20 years.

Location: Haus Sommer is located at Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt. The atelier with tatami and tea kitchen allows suspension on bamboo for 4 couples. The small group size creates an intimate frame to explore Shibari for single participants, couples, or for small groups of peers.

If you are new to bondage/shibari and interested in this class, please send a mail to the address below. Because of the small group size in this class the level is always adapted to the levels of the group.

– Please bring soft, comfortable clothes and ropes if you have.
– Ideally you register with a partner. If you don‘t have a rope partner yet, there often are other solo participants to pair up with. There is also the possibility to watch the class or self-tie.
– Costs 30 Euro per person.

Mail: workshops(at)dasniyasommer(dot)de / Messenger: haussommer / Insta: Kinbaku Haus / WA: +49-174-393 70 49

Dates: 24.3.2025
Hours: 19-21.30h
Costs: 30 Euro per person (max. four couples)

Haus Sommer is located at Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt – Wedding Uferstrasse 8,13357 Berlin. Entrance B6
In case the door is locked please call the number above.
Map here

In the picture: Eliko. Photographed by Werner Amann. Ropes: Dasniya.

TOIL – Sheena McGrandles & Friends

Back to Uferstudios rehearsing ‚Toil‘ by Sheena McGrandle.
Save the premier: December 3, 2025 + 4 +5 + 6.12.2025

HAU2, Hallesches Ufer 34, 10963 Berlin
Tickets  here
English here

“TOIL” untersucht den tanzenden Körper bei der Arbeit –  hin- und hergerissen zwischen Entfremdung und Begehren, Routine und Rebellion. Ausgehend von Ballett, irischem Folk und Punk entwerfen fünf Tänzer*innen in Begleitung von zwei Musiker*innen ein physisches Porträt des Tanzes als Ort von Arbeit und Sehnsucht zugleich.

“TOIL” ist eine choreografische Erkundung von Arbeit und ihrer emotionalen, historischen und körperlichen Dimensionen. Entstanden aus einer tiefen Hingabe an den Tanz mit all seinen Kämpfen und Freuden, reflektieren die Tänzer*innen Michelle Cheung, Eli Cohen, Martin Hansen, Mickey Mahar und Dasniya Sommer was bleibt, wenn Bewegung selbst zur Arbeit wird. Live begleitet von Marta Forsberg und Steve Heather, bewegt sich die eigens für “TOIL” komponierte Musik zwischen Elektro, Folk und Punk. In einem reduzierten Bühnenbild entsteht eine intensive Auseinandersetzung mit der eigenen Körperlichkeit, mit Rhythmus und Zusammenhalt. Ein ständiges Bemühen, den sich ständig veränderten Rhythmen der Zeit zu folgen.

Team

Konzept und Choreografie: Sheena McGrandles / Choreografie und Performance: Michelle Cheung, Eli Cohen, Martin Hansen, Mickey Mahar, Dasniya Sommer / Musikkomposition: Steve Heather, Marta Forsberg / Dramaturgie: Jette Büchsenschütz / Bühnenbild, Kostüme: Michiel Keuper / Kostümassistenz: Julianne Längin /Lichtdesign: Elliott Cennetoglu / Technische Leitung: Emese Csornai / Choreographic outside eye: Laurie Young and Louise Trueheart /Kreative Produktion: Saskia Schoenmaker / Produktionsassistenz: Cote Jaña / PR/Social Media: Agnė Auželytė

Image © Evan Loxton.

Research: Storia Infinita

Research: Eliko moves and suspends between plastic plates. Moss-swings, passepartout underlay for organic material and the skin as intimate surface. Eliko‘s partner joins the session, lifts and swings her gently for hours in the air.
Meanwhile woollen clouds are falling apart. One looks like Falkor from the Never Ending Story, maybe after the Japanese luck dragon Fuku Ryū.

Model: Eliko
Fotos: Werner Amann
Support: Iman.rhv
Space concept + ropes: Dasniya Sommer

Some thoughts trying to connect different levels of a research and questions on how the space would be shared with sound and performance. During Open Studio weekend at Uferhallen one guest asked if the contrast of the material has specific meaning. Others saw references to the Czech/Slovak feminist female artist Anna/Anča Daučíková.
To star with I was mainly inspired by the bright, oversize Dojo of the BJJ championship in Crete I saw last autumn.
Or is it a colourful chessboard? A dojo as place of learning, or a chessboard as place to play against each other? Speaking with a sound person they wondered if the geometric plates is a visual arrangement of music? Is there a correlation between the coloured areas and a performers physical impact on the material, for example a extra boxing dummy? And is the boxing dummy recognisable as such, or is it stuffed with sheep‘s wool into an amorphous structure that eventually bursts open, revealing soft wool?
Do the squares represent tonal sound diagrams, or are they simply colored dojo mats depicting a non-hierarchical space? Do the panels in the primary colors need to be complemented with intermediate/pastel tones? Is the wooden ladder part of the space and does it suggest something about the process-oriented, unfinished nature of the work, which is what research always is? Not a finished piece, but a step/phase in the creative process.

 
Studio Rental
From Oktober to December 2026 I am partially sharing my Studio at Uferhallen. It is a bright and calm space for physical training, shootings, meetings and research.

Two rooms 45m2, with dance floor or tatami, photo screens and tea kitchen. The space is great for concentrated writing projects, shibari tying/teaching, and shootings on white and green screen.
For more information contact: email(at)dasniyasommer(.)de
Throw back
Photos from almost a decade ago which when posting I shouted: I live for that shit! ;)

Being tied by Tamandua Kinbaku was deeply revealing. Even after years of teaching shibari myself, tying others, performing with ropes and hosting kink spaces. It was the chemistry, and his Akira Naka inspired style which clicked.

I passionately wanted to renegotiate my limits, also my border crossing drive as performer and in general. As ballet dancer I learned from early on to overstretch tendons and pain limits. For my inner punk and desire for edge it became a performative tool of resistance, which I thought needed to be reformulated with a more contemporary and fem signature. After almost 20 years, instagram compatibility, and the shibari/bondage becoming so socially acceptable I often wonder about the resistant potential of it (artistically). Think people who like to enjoy ropes should just do that (if its accessible to them). For ropes on stage I guess it depends on the stories that are told, questions of constellations, and hacking ideas around ‚power play‘ and the functions of it.

The sessions with Tamandua were blissful. A rush and fine sense switching between degrees of devotion, carefully feed backing borders and teasing around them. Also a meditation and emotional empowerment it felt. Later I figured such relationships of unbounded power play dynamics in combination with shibari can be unexpectedly complex. It’s always a learning. Reflecting and positioning oneself around threshold experiences, and integrating them as performative qualities and personally takes time.

As Kinbaku photography with a deeply devoted vibe I like them!
Workshop series: Harness in motion
choreografie-tanz-dasniya-sommer-bondage-shibari-Kunst-yum-yum-ballhaus-ost-berlin-rope-dance-workshops-klassen-performance
The series ‚Harness in Motion‘ consists of three workshops this summer:
1. class: Navigating weight lightly – 27.6.25

2. class: Skin, ropes and trust – 22.7.25

3. class: Adrenalin / Shibari fight club – 23.9.25
The workshop focuses on dynamic system of movements and rope restriction. Dasniya will open her vast dancers tool box to creatively expand the traditional shibari vocabulary. Rope harnesses will serve as anchor points and transform the classical top-bottom dynamic into playfully and intimately moving with your partner through space.

Note: This class is the second of a series of three classes that will explore this topic in depth. The classes build on each other but it is not obligatory to take all three of them.
For more information please contact: workshops(at)dasniyasommer.de

or register via: Karada House.
Dasniya Sommer is a Berlin-based choreographer, dancer and teacher who works in the range from performance to photography and video art, from Japanese Shibari to classical ballet. She examines movement and image from the perspective of the dancer. For 20 years Dasniya has practiced Japanese Shibari/Bondage stretching performative aesthetic categories, making shibari accessible to a wider and intersectional community.
 She tries to combine pure Japanese techniques (currently Akira Naka inspired) with an unconventional anarchic approach, often integrating objects or organic material into the process. 
Dasniya’s teaching is informed by her experience as a rigger and shibari model. Melting schools and philosophies from a great number of teachers such as Chanta Rose, Kamijoo Saki, Kasumi Hourai, Arisue Go, Akira Naka, Tamandua, Gestalta, and Norio Sugiura. She regularly teaches at ‘Haus Sommer’ her studio in Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, and a.o. at ImPulsTanz Vienna, Lismore’s Queer-Community/Australia, and Braunschweig University of Art. ‘Sculpting or moving with ropes I deeply enjoy the handcrafting moment combined with sensual attention towards my partner or the bondage material.‘
Photo by Pippa Samaya.
 
SHIBARI CLASS IN April
 
Shibari class Tuesday April 8th, 20th 2025

Hours: 7-9.30pm
The course Beginner with Previous Experience is directed at learning the basics of Shibari/Kinbaku technique. We start the class intuitively by following individual impulses with rope. After that we focus on systematic management of rope. On body handling and safety principles: knots, wrapping and aesthetic frictions. The material contains a wide range of harnesses for floor work and simple semi-suspension. It is strongly inspired by shibari works of Japanese artists I learned from over the last fifteen years. There is time to switch roles to deeper understand restriction from both the models perspective as well as the complex skill set of the rigger. In order to experience sexy phantasies and meditative ties.

Haus Sommer is located at Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt. The atelier with a tea kitchen allows for suspension on bamboo for four couples. The small group size creates an intimate frame to start exploring Shibari for single participants, couples and groups of peers.
– Please bring soft clothes and ropes if you have.

– You can register alone or with partner. If you want to join alone it’s possible to pair up with each other. We will try to connect single participants a few days befor the workshop, but can’t always guarantee. Many thanks for patience and understanding.

– At the beginning we suggest regular participation and practice to create a solid technical base.

– Costs 30 Euro per person.
Mail: workshops(at)dasniyasommer(dot)de / FB: haussommer / Insta: Kinbaku Haus / WA: +49-174-393 70 49
Dates: 8.4.2025

Hours: 19-21.30h

Costs: 30 Euro per person (max. four couples)


Haus Sommer is located at Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt – Wedding Uferstrasse 8,13357 Berlin. Entrance B6

In case the door is locked please call the number above.

Map here
In the picture: Eliko. Photographed by Werner Amann. Ropes: Dasniya.
Intermission by VAL
Dramaturgy for vAL / Corey Scott-Gilbert‘s new work at Tanztage Berlin 2025/ Sophiensaele. Passionately exploring what a dramatugical approach means from a practical dancers perspective. Thanks for this beautiful collaboration, and the lovely team brought together by Corey.
INTERMISSION
Reality has become so absurd that it’s hard to distinguish fact from fiction and we, simultaneously the viewers and the subjects, are left numb. If our authentic self is being clouded by the ravages of social ills, what do we have that can break through this psychic interference to be shared? The answer could be in our dreams, but what if we are so overwhelmed and oversaturated that we can only stare in a dreamless abyss?
INTERMISSION is a solo work based on a collective archive of dreams, aiming to fill the gaps of a fragmented remembering. By falling through a procession of postures stored in his body’s archive, vAL mines for clarity in a dense fog of disrupted dreams. What memory remains is shared through a stichting of narration, ballad and physical conjurings that start to reimagine what new dreams might sound or look like. The archive is brought to life by his own performative doubt, variability and curated interruption. This relentless pursuit of lost dreams inspires anarchy which ultimately becomes his repair. What may eventually erupt when we sit together in our puzzlement?
Cast and credit:

Performance: Corey Scott-Gilbert | vAL

Choreographic Associate: Ariel Cecelia Freedman

Dramaturgy: Dasniya Sommer

Sound: ILYICH

Light: Gretchen Blegen

Scenographer: Lea Steinhilber

Costume: SADAK

Production: Neda Sanai

Photos: Mayra Wallraff
This performance features hanging textiles made in collaboration with Luis Alberto Rodriguez and SADAK as well as the voices of Charli Reese Kane, Harvest Shira Shiloah, Kayden Tickner, Stelios Tsatsos, Gus Solomons Jr.
A production by vAL. Originally commissioned by Emerging Change Tanzfestival with the support of Flutgraben Performances Residencies and Sophiensæle. The 34th Tanztage Berlin is a production of Sophiensæle. Funded by the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion. With the kind support of Tanzfabrik Berlin e.V., Theaterhaus Berlin and Uferstudios GmbH. Media partners:  Berlin Art Link, Missy Magazine, Siegessäule, taz.