Asiana and Door – Announcing presenters

Asiana

Asiana’s love for rope started with the beginning of the internet in the 90’s when she saw the first images of Japanese women tied up. It wasn’t until well into the millenium that she had her first hands-on experience as a model. Very soon thereafter she picked up her first ropes and started tying herself and became hooked. She started tying male bodies first, and had to go abroad to learn from well-known nawashi. Since then she’s tied with numerous people of various gender, body size and shapes, and taken many lessons from different people.

Nowadays she’s quite well-known in her home country, the Netherlands, and has been running RopeLounge in Amsterdam for almost 6 years. She loves sharing her knowledge and teaches at a regular basis. At the same time she is an avid student. In 2017 she spent a few months in Japan to immerse herself in the Japanese culture, to better understand the context of kinbaku. She’s particularly drawn to semenawa, aesthetics and the intimacy of kinbaku. She truly enjoys making her partner suffer. She regards herself as a reluctant performer, but loves to put her models in the limelight.

Door

Door’s relationship with rope bondage can only be described as a passionate love at first sight. The moment she saw her first rope performance, she fell deeply for kinbaku. Shortly after, her intense practice as a rope bottom started. She has been learning from such amazing artists as Akira Naka and Iroha Shizuki, Riccardo Wildties and Redsabbath, WykD_Dave and Clover, Kasumi Hourai, Yoroi Nicolas and Soptik. In fall 2018 and spring 2019 she was a presenter at Eurix together with Asiana. She partners Asiana regularly in workshops given by her and occasionally she models for Soptik during his workshops.

In her approach to rope bottoming she draws abundantly from her other big passion, Argentine tango. She sees rope bondage as a non-verbal conversation between the rope top and the model, in which the role of the model is to fill in the space that the rope top is giving her with her personality and her emotions, and at the same time to inspire the rope top to continue the conversation.

The things that are the most important for her in rope are the connection to the rope top, the feelings experienced by the bottom and their expression, and the aesthetics. Therefore, the core of her practice is communication, body awareness and self-expression.

Workshops

Asymmetrical semi-suspensions

(Workshop level: L3, registration required)

Semi-suspensions can be the most fun and challenging ties there are. Even if you’re doing suspensions, during your session there will be at least two moments where you will have semi-suspensions. During this workshop you will explore the combination of semi-suspensions with asymmetry. You’ll find out what asymmetry does to the model, and how you can consciously use that to get them out of balance, both physically and mentally. The semi-suspension adds to that feeling.

This workshop is suitable to advanced levels.

Qi (ki) & rope

(Workshop level: L1-3)

There is much more to tying than just the physical and the emotional. The unseen, the intangible is just as important. Yukimura Haruki used to talk about it: ki (“qi” in Chinese).

Asiana has a background in qigong, the Chinese (martial) art where the focus is on qi. She used to teach how to harness qi for your well-being and protection. But there other uses. Asiana has developed this workshop on request and is so far unique when it comes to the combination of qi and rope. Through a series of individual and couple exercises you will learn how to experience qi. After that you will tie while using it. It will deepen your experience of tying in unexpected ways, and probably change how you tie for ever. Come with an open mind.

(Advanced) Frictions

(Workshop level: L2-3)

If you look at any kind of rope bondage from a pure technical point of view, tying comes down to wraps and frictions. Frictions are therefore an essential part of any tie we do. They do not have just a decorative function, if at all. In this workshop you learn to become even better and more efficient at your tying these frictions. This means upping your finger skills and dexterity. Besides that, you will get a good grasp of why you are using which friction for what purpose. There is not one friction that suits all purposes. This workshop means getting back-to-basics, but at a high level.