Tired but with hearts full of joy we came back to Berlin last week.
Our first full weekend dedicated to “Bodies under Pressure” is over. I think the community in Prague, the community formed around Subspace Studio was an ideal group to present our material to: technically very high level, high standards in terms of safety – and an attitude.
To put a body – the human soma, actually – under pressure is our way of tying. This is our frame for doing ropes. It is our approach to “semenawa”. I basically do impact play with ropes. This impact can be physical or emotional. Natasha makes her soma soft, to take the impact in, to accept it, to surrender to it.
“Bodies under Pressure” is also our proposal to tie beyond the patterns. We share the research we did in the past two years. I find the diligent study of forms, of Kata, very important. But I also observed over my years of teaching that many people get stuck with these figures.
They mix up Kata with the real tying. Kata-Ashi, S-Shape, … they are Kata. But what happens when we tie for real? What happens when we tie for the moment?
I asked my teacher, Riccardo Wildties, in my last private: “What is the meaning of the figures?”. His answer was: “I wish I would have had a teacher I could ask this question.” Then we had a very interesting discussion. But in the end, his answer was very Japanese. I guess what he wanted to say was something like: “You need to find it yourself”.
And so we went on… searching.
So, first and foremost, I think we should not know what we want to tie, when we are tying. When I know what I tie, then I do not tie in the moment, but towards a future – the future figure, position, aim, or a goal I want to achieve.
We are very happy that 11 couples trusted us (or Soptik Zet) enough to listen to what we wanted to share. We hope, we could inspire the participants, giving them a new spin on the process of tying.
Pictures by Joan von Brook
We at least enjoyed the beauty you all created.
This weekend was much too short. But it was full – full of encounters, chats, exchanges, and little and big moments.
After the workshop is before a workshop. We are looking forward to teaching this material, these ideas in Shibari Lounge Antwerp and in Kinbaku Lounge Copenhagen. We are very much looking forward to doing so, to see how the communities there adopt the ideas, what they make out of the inspirations.
And… we keep researching. Every time we teach – we also learn.
Looking forward to learning more, teaching, to share… Our bodies are such an interesting thing.