"Prague Shibari Festival is a three day rope event happening once a year in the heart of Europe since 2016. It is a safe and inclusive space for everyone who wants to enjoy ropes, learn and meet new people.
As the name suggests the main focus is on Japanese bondage. The festival is also open to other less traditional forms of shibari. You are welcomed whether the ropes are for you an artistic form, way of communication, place to relax and reconnect with yourself and your partner, tool for power exchange or just fun.
We choose presenters and workshop topics with diversity in mind. We cater for all levels of rope experience, roles and genders.
Everyday there are three time slots consisting of multiple parallel workshops. Evenings are dedicated to performances and rope jams."
This year Christian Red was invited to teach at the Prague Shibari Festival, organised by Soptik and his fantastic team. Having recently travelled and taught with Christian in the UK, I was delighted when he asked if I'd be interested in modelling for him at the festival.
Day 1
Outside of our teaching schedule we had the opportunity to participate in other classes and opted to attend a class by Marika Leila on her "Butterfly Harness" (she runs a very highly rated online Shibari Study website, where you can learn from her!). The class was fantastic, She is such an inspirational model and rigger and knows her content inside out. I found her to be very approachable and only wish I had more opportunities to learn from her in person!
Following this, we moved on to a semi-suspension class taught by Asiana & Door. Having incorporated semi-suspensions into a lot of my own rigging practice over the years I was interested to hear Asiana's take on this (though I modelled for Christian during the class). I was intrigued by the way Asiana played with balance, holding her model somewhere between ground and the air, forcing both a physical and mental unbalance and stress. Never allowing Door to quite settle into one position.
The final session of the day was our first teaching session: Let me Move you:
"Knowing how to move and control our partner opens up a wealth of possibilities during play. It lets us overcome a resisting bottom or just establish a new position without the need for verbal communication.
Inspired by various martial arts, we will explore different methods of standing control progressing to the point where we can take our partner down to the floor.
Depending on the needs of the attendees, we can explore methods of control where one party is considerably weaker than the other.
This class is aimed at all levels." - Christian Red
Christian comes from a martial arts background and often works with body manipulation in his rope scenes; from rough take-downs to softer scenes allowing his rope partner to either fight in a controlled manner or relax into his ropes feeling safe and considered. We taught a variety of techniques for gaining control over your partner's body and I enjoyed demonstrating some of these as the top in the scene, highlighting that size difference can be both an advantage and disadvantage dependant on the way you play. Whatever it is that we teach together, myself and christian aim to have fun, play around with the techniques and show both the technical and playful sides to the content.
PERFORMANCE!
Although I work as a performative artist in my day-job, it's rarely on an actual stage with a particularly large audience, so agreeing to perform at the festival felt like a very big deal! I've only performed in rope a couple of times previously, both many years ago so its safe to say I was quite nervous about doing so at the festival!
Soptik had specifically asked us not to do anything "Naka Style" and not to exceed 25 mins on stage. With these restrictions in mind, Christian and I discussed back and forth the possibilities and what we wanted to achieve.
A few weeks previously whilst teaching together in Inverness we played together in an incredibly energetic and engaging style, from which we received many positive comments from those watching, so our first step was to consider how we could use this as a base for performance. Of course, things that worked in the spur of the moment are always hard to re-create and our multiple attempts at rehearsing and staging something ended up as a totally new performance idea each time! This said, we worked together on a few playlists, as our rope scenes are heavily impacted by sound/music, and thoroughly tested out a bunch of harnesses suitable for me to thrash around in and sustain for long periods. We were keen to not over-choreograph something to the point that felt un-natural as one of the main things I enjoy about tying with Christian is the honesty and communication we have in whatever style reflects the mood and atmosphere of the moment.
Also whilst up in Inverness, a friend offered us a wedding dress. One of the more random gestures I've received lately but we both looked at one another and knew how to put it to good use! (Long story short, said dress vanished in the post but a backup wedding dress arrived just in time to take on our travels!)
[...Skip ahead to performance time]
Waiting back stage was excruciatingly nerve wracking, I hadn't seen the stage from this perspective before and now wearing my wedding dress I realised just how long and constrictive it was. A point that made me fear tripping and falling on my face but also set the scene in a way I hadn't previously considered, in that the dress itself felt like a form of bondage and took my mind to an excitable place.
Christian left first, as he headed out I felt myself trembling with anticipation, slowly I opened the curtain and entered to see him waiting for me centre stage.The first section of our interactions were slow, dance-like. I enjoyed his touch as he spun me around and gradually applied ropes over my skin and dress. Gradually with the pace of the music his attitude changed and became more forceful, throwing me around and eventually hoisting me into the air. What came next feels like a huge blur of emotion and movement. I fought, thrashed, danced in the air as his ropes bit hard into my skin. I felt the palm of his hand smack down hard on my cheek and defiance kicked in. I felt alive and engaged and welcomed the adrenaline into my veins. Unwilling to concede I fought harder, dared him to push me, force me to the edge and all too soon I felt calm. Relaxed and soothed as I melted into a puddle in his arms, the lights lowered and I remembered the audience in front of us. Embarrassed and shy as I was lead off stage, whilst simultaneously full of excitement and joy for the experience.
More performance photos can be seen in my other blog posts
Performances by Tamandua and Gestalta followed along with a beautiful demonstration by Docvale and Tyka.
Day 2
First workshop of the day was taught by Gestalta and Tamandua. Gestalta has developed a hands forward harness suitable for a variety of suspension options and was a really informative tutor. Shibari Suspensions - A step by step guide is her latest book, for which I modelled, and can highly recommend!
After lunch Christian and I taught our second workshop, No ground to go to:
"Controlling someone on the ground can be incredibly challenging as even light amounts of struggling or body manipulation can lead to a mess of limbs and tangled rope.
We will explore some common scenarios where our partner is actively resisting or we simply wish to move our partner. Using a combination of body mechanics, pressure points, and positional asphyxiation we will explore how we can alter our partner’s position or quell resistance as they fight against being tied.
This class is aimed at all levels." - Christian Red
This floor based body manipulation class was split into three main positions and demonstrated a number of takedown and control techniques. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the participants take this information and apply it to their own styles, laughing, giggling, moaning and a host of other sounds could be heard around the room - it was a pleasure to have influenced such varied connections!
Exhausted but not defeated, we attend a class on communication by Michael Ropeknight and Tamina Himmelgrau. They discussed intention, "isatsu" (a way of starting a rope scene), very gentle suggestion and reassurance. The class also focused on breath restriction and vulnerable body positions but most importantly for me, I found a beautiful space in which to connect with my rigger and be vulnerable together in our expression of understanding and gratitude.
The Saturday evening set the stage for Andrea Ropes and Chiara Fenice, followed by Asiana and Door (sadly I missed these two performances whilst emotionally recovering from the day!) but returned just in time to see an inspirational tie between Soptik and MieNeko.
Day 3
Sad to see the festival coming to an end, we enthusiastically participated in Tamandua's class with Gestalta on exposing ties. "The gaze on your body makes you feel hyper aware of your body and being observed. Makes it feel more real" - Tamandua. The class was a partial suspension workshop exploring the art of looking and being looked at. He talked about building anticipation, viewing the body as an emotional map and forcing confrontation/objectification. This class left me sobbing and reflective on my vulnerability during the scenes. I'm incredibly thankful to Christian for exploring this class with me and the trust it built between us.
As if my emotions hadn't taken quite enough of a beating, we then joined Soptik and Door for their humiliation class. Soptik discussed how in daily life we fight for dignity and respect which can be totally removed within a scene, though at the end of it you are still human and still yourself which can be a very powerful realisation. We discussed the boundaries between shame, humiliation, degradation and objectification and explored a range of physical acts and their potential emotional outcomes.
After an incredible festival and a brain full of inspiration it was finally time for Christian and I to teach the last class: Choke Yourself:
"Hojojitsu is a fascinating subject because of its complex relationship with the history of shibari and its reputation for cold efficiency.
We will begin with a brief overview of the origins of hojojitsu and discuss some of the practical barriers of trying to reproduce traditional hojojitsu ties.
Our class will focus on a handful of ties inspired by historical sources but modernised with more conventional tying techniques. We will establish the inherent ‘threat’ of each tie, as well as practising some techniques for handling rope and tying efficiently.
This class is aimed at all levels. We ask that attendees be aware of the inherent risk of the ties. Despite the title, we can demonstrate alternative patterns for attendees not comfortable with neck rope." - Christian Red
This workshop focused on martial arts style body manipulations combined with adaptations of hojojitsu ties that create a predicament in the model - a balance between maintaining posture or choking yourself. We looked at both upright positions and ground based positions, playing with positional asphyxiation and using rope to create a choke.
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With the festival over, I was glad to have booked a few more days to stay in Prague and enjoy the sights. It's possibly the most beautiful city I've visited and cannot wait to be back in future!
We also taught some private tuition and attended a weekly bondage jam at Subspace, during which our scene was drawn by Fonseca.
A huge thank you to Soptik and all the team that made the festival possible and welcomed us into their space and to Christian for inviting me along on the adventure! I feel so full of love after this week and truly cannot wait to return!
