Self-Suspension Workshop in October

Institut Sommer Lewis Slef-suspension
Lewis

Fly high! This workshop answers all your questions on self-suspension technique. After a solid warm up we will look at different harnesses for your personal self-suspension.

The technique varies depending on its function and anatomy. It can be used for performing or simply as rope playing with a partner. We will look at safety tricks, breathing and progressions in the air.

For me self-suspension is also a performative tool for self-empowerment.
So when you are in the air, we will pace down, finding your personal rope dance and your own inner hero.

Please bring comfortable clothes, a snack and ropes if you have, otherwise we provide them.

Friday, October 14th
Hours: 12 -16h
Costs: 50 €
Where: Institute Sommer, Uferstrasse 8, 13357 Berlin. U8 Pankstrasse, U9 Osloerstrasse
(Enter the gate at the big bus, walk right to the building with the big watch, -> Left and immediately right up the small stairs ‘B’)

Please take this number in case the door is locked, 0174-3937049

“Bondage Show”

bondage@Institut-sommer

Unseren nächsten Auftritt Bondage Show machen wir beim Festival Grenzenlos Kultur in Mainz.

Performance Impulse: Silke Backofen – Schönfleisch, Dasniya Sommer und Florian Loycke
24. September 2016, 14 Uhr
Staatstheater Mainz, Glashaus

Im Rahmen des Symposion Who Cares?
Kuratiert von Astrid Kaminski und Jeremy Wade

Der zukünftige Körper: ein hochfunktionales, interaktives System. Perfekt? Auf jeden Fall verwundbar. Denn je besser wir funktionieren (wollen), desto größer werden auch die gegenseitigen Abhängigkeiten.
Wie gestalten wir dieses Verhältnis? Menschen mit Behinderungen sowie generell Menschen mit hohem Hilfsbedarf stehen oft in einem komplizierten Abhängigkeitsverhältnis – zu Hilfsmitteln, Sozialleistungen, Assistenzen, Therapien, Vormündern. Mehr Info

Bondage Workshop Amsterdam Sunday September 4th

With Dasniya Sommer

Nawa Shibari means ‘rope’, shibari means ‘ winding or knotting’. This Japanese way to tie the body with ropes comes from the Edo period, when Samurais used ropes in martial arts.

Today it’s a sensual, performative practice for erotic play, or to experiment with the body. There is the emotional aspect ‘Kinbaku’. The rigger tries to capture their partners soul :) Air oscillates, power shifts during the ritual, and together you travel to a different plane. Zen moments mix with our animal vibe. It’s called rope drunkenness.

In this three hour workshop we start with Shibari basics and will  focus on the technique. We will talk about security principles and learn some seductive, playful tricks. There will be lighthearted one rope harnesses, and one more complex figure combined with sensual elements. It’s all about having fun!

Everybody is welcome, beginners and more advanced riggers/models. Just respect the group!

We work in groups of different levels, with also individual input. An easy going space with ropes, tea and chocolate :)

Please bring own ropes and comfy trackies. If you don’t have ropes, we can lend you some. You don’t have to bring a partner.

The workshop takes place at:

Katie Lee’s Place
Harry Koningsbergerstraat 82
Amsterdam 1063 AC

-> close to Sloterdijk

Sunday September 4th
Hours: 15 – 17 h
Costs: 20 €

Caritia tying Tamandua, photo: Katjakat at Institute Sommer

Bio Dasniya:

“To my own surprise I became an international bondage star with my self-suspension solo Idiosyncrasy, and since than I worked in all kind of context from opera, puppet theatre to movies. I also keep on creating experimental (bondage) performances.

I learned yoga from my father, which I practice until today and combine it with Shibari and dance.

Teaching ropes at my Institut Sommer in Berlin, a laboratory for bondage, dance and art, to where I invite other artists. Always twisting the idea of bondage stereotypes I developed anarchic shibari, mixed it with butoh, animal characters, buddhist attitude, action painting and cable fixer installations.

And I jumped into the gender dschungle and tried to get away from the male oriented perspective.

With ropes I started off about a decade ago. My teachers were Osada Steve, Kamijoo Saki, Matthias Grimme, Arisue Go, Kinoko and also the choreographer Frances d’Ath.

I always liked making things with my hands, so it came to me naturally to get in the active position.

I wanted to learn how to tie with ropes, and it was somehow easy for me. And then came the macramé aspect. I liked the pretty decoration of bodies, spinning more and more knots between people. And it came together with my body history as a dancer: stretch and pain from ballet, minimal steps and backbends. And of course the drama. This was just the beginning of the path of the rope, my own Shibari Dô :)”

Blog: dasniyasommer.de/zurzeit
Photo: Tamandua, Caritia, KatjaKat @ Institute Sommer

Workshops, Private Teaching, & Sessions in Amsterdam

This coming week I am teaching in Amsterdam (inbetween performing in the Fringe Festival!). I’ll post more information here shortly. If you’d like to attend either a public workshop or class, or arrange a private group or individual training with me, drop me an email: workshops@dasniyasommer.de. I’m also available for private sessions this week and next. Hope to see you!

Harness — Amsterdam Fringe Festival

Knot Aplicable- Harness
Knot Aplicable- Harness

I am in Amsterdam! For the next week, I will be performing in the Amsterdam Fringe Festival, and teaching workshops. Sophie Fetokaki invited me to create and perform with her a live art / performance art / installation work called Harness, also with Vera Goetzee and Mei-yi Lee. We’re performing at Oostblok, Sajetplein, this weekend and early next week. All the details below!

Also I’ll be teaching shibari workshops while I’m in Amsterdam, email me for details, and check back here for more info.

Harness

Knot Applicable

Rope. Voice. Body. Percussion. These are the four elements of Harness, a work bringing together the music of John Cage and the Japanese rope-tying art of Shibari into one immersive performance art work, exploring the dynamics of tension and release; silence and sound; movement, stillness and duration.

Harness raises all sorts of questions, about trust and spectatorship, about consent and power, about beauty and desire. But most of all, it invites the audience to come along for the ride, to travel through the duration of the performance, to permit and explore the inevitable flux of responses; to dive into a deeply dynamic experience of slow, patient transformation.

About the artists

Sophie Fetokaki: voice, artistic direction
Dasniya Sommer: shibari artist
Vera Goetzee: dancer, model
Mei-yi Lee: percussion
Petyr Veenstra: light & technics

Where & When

Fri 2nd, Sat 3rd, Mon 5th, Tues 6th September, 2016
Fri & Mon: 21:00
Sat & Tues: 18:30
Tickets: €7,00
Oostblok, Sajetplein, Amsterdam
Amsterdam Fringe Festival

Teufelsberg

Second trip to Teufelsberg: Tamandua tying my body in a planty tunnel. Melting and twisting me into nature. Whilst being pulled from both ends another friend rescued me from time to time. Tourists chattering by my ear, but mostly  didn’t see us behind the thicket.

Tying: Tamandua
Photos: The Moose
© SommerProductions