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Bondage

Shibari Classes In July

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This month: Tuesday July 15 + 29, 2025 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: 15 + 29.7.2025
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.

Workshop series: Harness in motion

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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 – date tba / in September

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 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.

Workshop at Zimmt: Festival for Multisensory Perception

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A sweet trip to Leipzig teaching at Zimmt Festival. Always appreciating the advance of trust of a new group. Retrospectively I think teaching bondage is fundamentally about holding a space which legitimates forms of playful and consensual rope work or bdsm dynamic. A determined time in which bodily encounters are allowed and warmly accompanied while exploring liminal desires. I am using similar tools as in movement classes, except the task unfold in an opposite way: from movement to bodily restriction. Or from shaping outer contours to internal and emotional movement.
People learn the rope techniques and a sort of scripted ritual of a bondage session. Exploring about desires, borders or thresholds and interacting beyond the verbal via rope. A material which allows extreme proximity, but equally putting a temporal space between the practitioners. For example touching indirectly to relax about the actual touch.
After 20 years of teaching, exchanging and mutual growing I still enjoy observing the mind shifting process participants go through, even in a basic introduction workshop. Thanks to ‚Zimmt‘ for this lovely invite!

Festival for Multisensorical Perception

3D Audio Concerts, Exhibitions, Workshop and Lectures

From November 25 to December 4, the sens taktil festival will focus on the overlaps and interactions between the experience of touch and the experience of hearing: in the rooms of ZiMMT and on the grounds of Kontor 80, we invite you to a joint multi-sensory, synaesthetic exploration in which the boundaries between art and the viewer become blurred. In audiovisual concerts with 3D sound or in an ASMR performance, on sound loungers or in walk-in and touchable installations of the tactile exhibition, in workshops, in the festival sauna or on the tactile path, experiences are created that can be heard and felt.

Raven with Long Covid

Showcase Beat Le Mot - Raven with long Covid Hebbel am Ufer Berlin -Dasniya Sommer
By Showcase Beat Le Mot

Dates: Thu + Fri 19. + 20.December 2024. And Sat + Sun 4. + 5. Januar 2025.
German text and tickets here

“Breathe in, breathe out. Find a niche in the brutal world until the storm has passed. Breathe in, breathe out. Dealing with the authorities, healthcare forms. Noise & light are no longer a simple joke, but nasty everyday hurdles. Breathe in, breathe out. What happens when the limits of consideration meet the limits of perception? Breathe in, breathe out.”

“Raven” is a symposium, gathering and performance about peak performance and the question of what happens when nothing else works. The frame of reference is the chronic illness ME/CFS, as a chronicised form of Long Covid. Sick and non-ill artists are involved in the conception and design of the event series with various contributions. The title refers on the one hand to the dance and party culture of the 90s, and on the other to the claustrophobic fantasies of forced standstill as sketched by E.A. Poe in his famous poem of the same name.

Over four days, “Raven” creates space for the art that is created with and despite ME/CFS. ‘Raven’ is explicitly designed for sick people, companions and allies, as a theatre in a reclining position, with quiet spaces and landscapes with reduced stimuli.

Cast

Concept, realisation: Showcase Beat Le Mot / Artistic collaboration: Florian Feigl, Christopher-Felix Hahn, Albrecht Kunze / Performance by and with: Philip Albus & Ana Berkenhoff, Catherina Cramer, Katharina Cromme, Gosia Gajdemska, The Millennial Midlife Crisis, Malin Harff, Stephan Hellweg, Clara Heinrich, Anja Ibsch, Sunniva Innstrand, Ania Kolyszko, Josephine Lange, Sophie Lenglachner, Roxane Llanque, Romy Lutze, Sebastian Meissner, Dana Müller, Rebekka Muth, Leonard Nadolny, Carolin Ott, Crash Theater, Johanna Pigors, National Ballet of Kosovo, Julia Sandforth, Louisa Schiedek, Lilia Schliephacke, Showcase Beat Le Mot, Elisabetta Solin, Dasniya Sommer, Birte Viermann, Mirjam Wählen, Sebastian Warne, Lisa Wiedemann, Erik Zürn, 4 Faule Frauen, Dania Alasti, Toni Kritzer, Moritz Andreas Bürge, Amar Halilović, Lukas Kahn Kesler, Black Ferk Studio (Matthias Mollner, Judith Schößbock) /Technical direction: Bart Huybrechts / Production management: Olaf Nachtwey
Photo: Michael Shenbrot.

Production: Showcase Beat Le Mot. Co-production: HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Funded by: Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion, Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

Shibari Workshops November + Dezember


Four more Shibari workshops until the end of year:

12.11.2024 from 19 – 21.30h at Haus Sommer
19.11.2024 from 19 – 21h –  Karada House
2.12. 2024 at 17h – Zimmt Festival, Leipzig
3.12.2024 from 19 – 21.30h – Haus Sommer

Topic: Durational Harnesses

We will look at classical full body ties for simple suspension. The Hishi-structure is a gradually tightening shape which is fun to build and useful to understand specific decorative elements. Adapting to all bodies, it can be untied with a dynamic vibe, a somewhat wild and gutty energy. Before tying it yourself we will repeat body manipulation principles on the floor.
From the models perpective the tying proccess needs some patience, but invites also to deep relaxation and dreamy states of rope drunkenness.
Level: begginner with previous experience – light intermediate.

Hours: 19 – 21.30h
Price: 30€ p.p.

For the dates: Nov 12 + Dec 3 at Haus Sommer, you can register via mail: workshops(at)dasniyasommer(dot)de. More info about content/level and Haus Sommer location here.
For November 19th pls reserve your spot via the Karada House site. Last minute participants can pay by the door.

In the picture: Liz Rosenfeld (aka Riv) in their performance ‘ Thank you for your effort even if these requests cannot be fullfilled’.

As long as you want

Coaching ropes and choreographic kink for Sheena McGrandles new work
‘As long as you want’.

Opening: Wed 6.11.2024 at 20.30pm / Hau2
+ 7 + 8 + 9.11. at 20.30pm

The duet “as long as you want” by Sheena McGrandles and Eli Cohen is a choreographic study of lesbian temporalities. The work is inspired by a body of erotic fantasy literature – assembling a cross-temporal arch of female poetic voices. Ancient poet Sappho meets contemporary thinkers such as Anne Carson and Sara Torres, alongside kink and punk practices, including Shibari, gay shadow dance, and pogo. A personal exploration of desire unfolds in a pastel-coloured landscape, with patches of digital renderings and densely knotted denim structures developed together with the visual artist Anna Mirkin.

Through intense physical connections and ambivalent sensations an ongoing choreography of fractured spaces of dis/attachment emerge. Together the performers’ solo bodies meet and melt in a world of never ending waves, rough play, and figures caught in a horizon of want and longing. In this temporary cycle of swellings and throbbings, desire transcends its fleeting nature, revealing transformative, perverse, and polymorphous forces. Playful and engaging, “as long as you want” is a profound choreographic encounter with an impulse of moving toward someone who isn’t yet close enough.

Cast:
Concept, choreography and performance: Sheena McGrandles / Performance by and with: Eli Cohen / Music composition: Stellan Veloce / Dramaturgy and Co-concept: Mila Pavićević / Set design: Anna Mirkin / Costume design: Evan Loxton, Nina Loxton /Light design: Elliott Cennetoglu / Choreographic Outside Eyes: Martin Hansen, Claire Vivienne Sobbotke / Shibari Practice with: Dasniya Sommer / Production: Anna von Glasenapp / high expectations / Production Assistant: Katharina Joy Book / Social Media: Dalia Hassan / Distribution: Paz Ponce / Thanks to: Nattan Dobbkin

Tying and Timing

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Shibari classes at Karada House: 24.9. + 22.10.2024
Shibari classes at Haus Sommer 1. + 8.+ potentially 15. 10.‘24

Topic: Tying and Timing
Hours: 19-21h
Group size: max. 10 couples

Repeating Japanese inspired technique: futo momo, gote and potentially semi-suspension, we will look at different temporalities while tying. Considering the preparation time before a bondage ritual. Connecting individual rhythms of rope from slow binding to mid tempo or speed tying, and also talking about ‘crip time‘ – constellations. How can experimenting with tempi, rhythm and rope translate intimate desires into a groovy session? Or, how can we embrace our anti-groove?

More info and directions: Karada House
Address: KARA, Perleberger Straße 59, 10559 Berlin (Moabit)

More information and the Haus Sommer address here.

In ropes: Tara Samaya
Picture: Pippa Samaya

ADA Research: SPK – der Sommer Phuong Komplex

Reasearching four weeks with Fungi Fung at Ada-Studio . Many thanks to:
Gabi Beier, Maria Ladopoulos and Liisi Hint!
And to our team:
‘Leichte Sprache’ translation and dramaturgical support: Manuel Gerst.
Outside eye: Clara Eckhardt and Akiles.
Critical companion: Melmun Bajarchuu.
There is an online stream of the performance on the Ada-site until Thursday March 21st.
And a text written by studio writer Maia Joseph.