Haag & Pendragon – Announcing presenters

@Haag (he/they) is a professional rope bondage teacher and runs the Ellipsis Rope Events Foundation based in Rotterdam (NL). He has hosted many rope events varying from international workshops, performances, demonstrations and rope jams for more than a decade. Haag is passionate about photography, community work and teaching, and his tying style is focused on safety, knowledge/experience-based improvisation, high paced tying, dynamic movement, and creativity. He has a very technical approach to rope which is complemented by his dance background, psychology studies and various hobbies that incorporate fine motor skills.

Find out more about Haag at his Instagram and FetLife.

Pendragon (she/they) has been rope bottoming since 2018, tying with Haag since 2019, teaching since 2020 and volunteering at Ellipsis Rope Events in Rotterdam since 2023. In ropes she enjoys experiencing passionate yet conflicting feelings, physical/emotional challenges and power dynamics, be it playful or dark. As a rope bottom, she benefits from her emotional and physical awareness, and, with her background is literature, enjoys writing stories in ropes whenever so inspired. She values integrity, authenticity and solidarity in rope bottoming, and these values are reflected in workshop settings where relevant. Having been a teacher in a previous life, she enjoys sharing her experiences and seeing people immediately feel skillful and joyful.

Find out more about Pendragon at her Instagram and FetLife.

Workshops

Joy of Movement

(Workshop level: L1-3)

Often in rope sessions we can get lost in the details of rope, frictions and patterns and the judgment of the success of our scene gets measured by observing the end result rather than the movements and experience of the session itself. We will offer exercises and discuss concepts to be able to better enjoy and understand how we move, facilitate flow-state and connect with our tying partners.

We will give modeling tips on how to move with your partner even if you are not used to moving in ropes. There will also be room to discuss the emotional experience of moving together for riggers as well as models, how certain movements can create conflicting but desirable emotions and how we can achieve certain emotional states while moving.

Looptricks

(Workshop level: L2-3)

This workshop we will explore a category of advanced rope handling tricks developed by Haag called “looptricks”. These tricks encourage more dynamic/movement based tying or speed tying, but are also used to diversify the rope application of your existing harnesses and therefore their tying experience.

For models, looptricks can necessitate getting used to a way of keeping their footing while moving which can facilitate more enjoyment of the ebb and flow of getting tied with looptricks. We will give modeling tips on anticipatory movement to match the rigger’s pace and on how to facilitate the flow of the tying session.

Impact in Rope

(Workshop level: L2-3)

We will show rope handling techniques that facilitate impact play while tying (versus “while tied”) and “rough” movement techniques to create more active and emotionally impactful sessions.

Through examples of how to gradually progress the intensity of these techniques we can explore these dynamics in a more responsible way. By discussing our emotional processes and reactions to impact play in rope with our partners, we can enrich our session experiences.

Creative Deviance & Authentic Expression

(Workshop level: L1-3)

In this topic we will challenge both our conscious and unconscious fixations to facilitate a more creative and (often) more rewarding approach to our rope practices. We will show various examples of tips and tricks we developed in our tying style to stimulate your own originality as well as discuss examples that would actively constrain creativity. This topic will focus less on the “why?” and more on the “why not‽”.

With deviance comes variety and unpredictability, which can be catalysts to authentic emotional expressions. Taking rope bondage as a mostly non-verbal and emotional dialogue, we can stay true to our emotions and explore how we feel being tied in unconventional tying patterns.