Viennese rope festival 2015 (part the first)

By |2024-08-18T14:07:45+00:00May 19th, 2015|Categories: Events, Festivals, Performance|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , |

I meant to blog about this event right after it happened and was frankly unforgivably lazy about blogging for the longest time. Now I've blogged about an event since the guilt pressure is finally high enough that I'm going to actually write this up. This was our first time in Vienna and our first time in Austria. Aside from the fact that we would get to see some of Vienna we were excited to see some friends for the first time in what seemed like ages. Wildties, Redsabbath, Saki Kamijoo and her model Mayumi Sumi. It's incredible to think  that over the last couple of years we've met up with each other variously in London, Paris, Rome, Moscow, Chicago and now Vienna. It frankly is incredible to think that this kind of thing now seems so perfectly natural. As usual I'm going to have to take a moment to mention the people that organise events like this. I have to say that they very probably do a better job than I could and we were well looked after being collected from the airport and well informed about everything that was going on. I especially have to say thank you to those that spared their time to show us round some of their magnificent city. It's really spectacular. But before that the festival itself. We were really pleased to be asked to open the festivals shows and the venue was great being in a brewery in the city. The bar section where the opening was held was dark and filled with old blackened wood. It provided a great setting for the opening and a great atmosphere for the performance with the audience close [...]

Une soirée de performance, sous le signe du semenawa, à la Place des Cordes avec Akira Naka & Gorgone.

By |2016-10-28T16:39:55+00:00May 17th, 2015|Categories: Events, Performance, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , , |

This was an unexpected little trip for us but a really nice one. We were asked to perform in Paris with Naka Akira and Gorgone. at Place des Cordes which is a very nice rope dojo. We live 15 minutes from an Airport but in usual style appropriate flights to Paris weren't available so we first had to drive to Birmingham to catch a flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The airport btw is a bit big and sprawling and it took a while to get to the appropriate customs, passport control and baggage. And then to find the exit and train. Once we'd found the right way it was only an hours journey on the train to catch a tube to get us close to the venue. Once there the first job was to get cleaned up from the unfortunate ordure of travelling. Sweaty and exhausting. It's a big of an unfortunate thing that though the flight to Paris is only about an hour, getting from your home to your destination can take over 8 hours of actual travel. Our first impresson of Place des Cordes was that it was a really good space and had a great feeling. The second was the huge grins that attend seeing Naka san again. Hugs, back slapping and greetings that make you realise how much you can miss people but also make you realise how many of your friends life far, far away. One friend there we hadn't seen in something like 4 years. It honestly didn't feel that long but when you look at it the time flies by. Not huge amounts to report on the afternoon that was left as most was spent on [...]

Une soirée de performance, sous le signe du semenawa, à la Place des Cordes avec Akira Naka & Gorgone.

By |2024-08-18T14:16:58+00:00May 17th, 2015|Categories: Events, Performance, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , , |

This was an unexpected little trip for us but a really nice one. We were asked to perform in Paris with Naka Akira and Gorgone. at Place des Cordes which is a very nice rope dojo. We live 15 minutes from an Airport but in usual style appropriate flights to Paris weren't available so we first had to drive to Birmingham to catch a flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The airport btw is a bit big and sprawling and it took a while to get to the appropriate customs, passport control and baggage. And then to find the exit and train. Once we'd found the right way it was only an hours journey on the train to catch a tube to get us close to the venue. Once there the first job was to get cleaned up from the unfortunate ordure of travelling. Sweaty and exhausting. It's a big of an unfortunate thing that though the flight to Paris is only about an hour, getting from your home to your destination can take over 8 hours of actual travel. Our first impresson of Place des Cordes was that it was a really good space and had a great feeling. The second was the huge grins that attend seeing Naka san again. Hugs, back slapping and greetings that make you realise how much you can miss people but also make you realise how many of your friends life far, far away. One friend there we hadn't seen in something like 4 years. It honestly didn't feel that long but when you look at it the time flies by. Not huge amounts to report on the afternoon that was left as most was spent on [...]

Shibari shoot with Neil Whitely

By |2024-08-18T18:07:46+00:00September 23rd, 2012|Categories: Shoots|Tags: , , , , , |

Yesterday Clover and I had the fortune to shoot with Neil Whitely (In Rhyl (In Wales (In the UK))). It was a real pleasure for us. From the nice drive down (And Jersey ice-cream. (And a Coffee that was like a mug full of espresso.)) to the shoot itself, to the chip supper when we got home. The whole shoot was very relaxed and Neil was very forthcoming about his aims and the kind of images he was looking for whilst very open to ideas about how to get them. His style is very strong on emotional content and focuses very much on expression and feeling. He's very good at getting this into his images as you can see when you look at the gallery at the end of this blog. Frankly for the bulk of the images we just sort of did what we might do at home anyway. So at least this time you will see some of us being ourselves. The fat that it looks good is entirely down to Neil's expertise in capturing these images. I hope you enjoy the results of this shoot, we certainly enjoyed doing it.

Yin Yoga for Bondage

By |2016-10-28T16:39:56+00:00September 21st, 2012|Categories: Learning|Tags: , |

Hi. This is Dave introducing a guest article here. Yin Yoga for Bondage is by BYG (Bendy Yoga Girl from Boston at the time of writing and just lately relocated to Seattle) I'm sure you'll enjoy it. As a yoga person, and a bondage person, I’m always happy to hear teachers talk about the importance of stretching as it relates to bondage. There are two main buckets of stretching, if you will: static and dynamic. Static stretching involves holding positions for at least 30 seconds, although I recommend 1.5 to 3 minutes (I’ll get into the why of this in a bit). Dynamic stretching involves using movement to take the body to (not beyond) its limit. Dynamic stretching increases blood flow to the areas that are being worked. The debate between the efficacy of dynamic vs. static stretching has resulted in a great deal of research on the matter. In a study by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, researchers found that athletes (runners) generated less force in their leg muscles after static stretching than after no stretching at all, indicating that performance (running, etc.) is enhanced by not doing slow stretches before working out. The inverse of this finding would state that static stretching inhibits athletic performance (running, etc.) Here are some effects of static stretching one it’s held for more than a minute or so: muscles relax fascia is stretched ligaments stretch mobility in the joint that is being stressed increases flexibility in the general area that is being stretched increases If one was to work the hips in such a way as to relax all of the muscles, and then ask the legs to do, say, a 5k run... well, yes. This [...]

Sinsations

By |2016-10-28T16:39:57+00:00September 16th, 2012|Categories: Events, Performance, Teaching|Tags: , , , , , |

It was great to be a part of the first Sinsations, a new event in Derbyshire. I can't remember a better first night of any event. Firstly the venue was excellent. It was as clean and well done as any I've been to. Normally a swingers club they naturally enough did not have a lot of BDSM furniture but everyone knew that before the event so nobody had a reason disappointed by that, also there were large benches in every room that were put to good use by many kinksters during the evening. There was a really good crowd came to the event, it was busy and convivial and I have to congratulate the organisers for the way they put this together, publicised it and ran it. We were there to do a rope bondage demonstration and a BDSM 101 class. The rope bondage show was newaza or floor work. Some of the people had seen us doing suspension based shows before so it was nice to be able to show them something closer to the kind of bondage that we enjoy in private. We would like to thank everyone that gave us such kind comments after the show and those that have posted and blogged about it since. We are really blown away by all your kindness and generosity. The BDSM 101 class is something that we present together and changes every time we do it. We try to cover the basics for a BDSM newcomer in a reasonable time. Again we have to thank everyone that gave such positive feedback and told us that they found it informative. All in all it was a tremendous first night for a new event. We thoroughly [...]

Shoot with Rodm and Gestalta

By |2016-10-28T16:39:58+00:00September 8th, 2012|Categories: Shoots|Tags: , , , , , |

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far... OK a couple of years ago in Cambridge (The one in England not the one in Masachusetts.) I had the opportunity to do a  shoot of Japanese style rope bondage with English photographer Rodm and a model who's name I cannot now happily remember... happily for her because she flaked on the shoot with zero notice. Luckily Rod was able to get a replacement who very kindly came to the shoot at very short notice. This model was Gestalta and she was a real pleasure to work with. I think we got some really great stuff in the end. I was particularly happy with the Hojo hishi nawa. I think generally the shibari in this shoot works well and Rod captured the bondage and the mood. So these are some bondage pictures I'm very happy to have been involved in making. All credit though to our great model Gestalta (who has since modelled for, amongst others,  Kazami Ranki notably in performance at the Festival of the Art of Japanese bondage).  

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