Luke Ropes & Husalia – Announcing presenters
Luke Ropes
Luke started his journey with rope as a rigger in 2020. From 2022 he became Joan von Brook’s model and co-teacher on workshops they’ve been teaching since. In 2023, he joined the permanent teaching team at Subspace Studio in Prague. He thrives on experimenting with various styles and techniques in tying, drawing inspiration from the Naka-ryu style, Nicolas Arnoys, and Joan von Brook.
“For me shibari is about exploration. I love to find new ways, new paths. Shibari is often put in boxes: art, erotics, body-work, BDSM and many more. My aim is to blend these elements and shaping them into something exciting. Exploration gradually becomes a craft of tying that can be refined and transformed. It’s a never ending cycle. I explore ropes because I want to create something. The tie itself isn’t the end goal, rather, it acts as a pathway for expressing ourselves.
In my workshops, I love to share this approach with other participants. While each of us is responsible for our own exploration, we can grow from shared knowledge. After all, isn’t that why we gather at festivals like this?”
Find out more about Luke at his Instagram.
Husalia
Husalia started her rope journey in Berlin, Schwelle7, in 2015, immediately fascinated by the diversity of rope and varying dynamics/interactions between participants. During her initial years, she also explored the rope communities in England and France.
Husalia enjoys active bottoming within different styles of rope. Though her teaching approach is shaped by her extensive background in ballroom and latin dance, as well as other movement disciplines. Additionally, she is passionate about teaching about self reflection and empathy/emotions as it enables oneself to dive into ones own and your partners emotions and desires – shaping the experience together.
Rope is a medium for her to playfully explore the interplay with a partner, co-creating an experiential journey.
In the past she presented together with Haag at Eurix in Berlin and Prague Shibari Festival.
Mantras for deepening tying experience
(Workshop level: L1-3)
Mantra – also known as affirmation or self-suggestion, will be our main tool during this workshop. We are going to dive deeper into an altered state of mind by repeating the mantra. Besides that we’ll discuss how to make your own mantra for a session or long term dynamic. Mantras on this workshop will be focused on surrender, objectification, suffering and other D/s or power-play dynamics. Mantra can also help us with focusing, managing pain, or dealing with racing thought while tying or being tied. We will focus on both tops and bottoms experience.
Tenugui (cloth) for every occasion
(Workshop level: L1-3)
When I tie, I almost always have a tenugui and short rope in my back pocket. In this workshop, I’ll show you why. It’s nice to make a blindfold or a gag out of cloth, right? Well, we will go further. This piece of fabric can be used to tie someone up in a matter of seconds. It’s also a great body-manipulation tool and can be also used in partial suspensions. Not to mention the objectifying and breathtaking opportunity of layering tenuguis on face/mouth. We will also explore the differences between tying with rope and cloth and how to (un)tie it efficiently and safely.
If you don’t have your own cloth (tenugui), it will be possible to buy them before the workshop for 5 EUR. Alternatively, you can also use any kind of fabric.
Wake up your curious mind
(Workshop level: L1-3)
Have you ever tried to start a session without single or double column tie? Or tying with both ends of rope at once? This and more new experiences are going to be explored during this lab. We will break the boundaries of common ties and approaches. We will ask ourselves questions like: “What if I do this? Will it work for us? How does it make me feel?” While challenging our imagination, we will keep it safe and sane. The techniques are going to be more top/rigger oriented, but bottoms are equally important because both of you will bring new ideas to the session.
Edging with ropes
(Workshop level: L1-3)
You know the feeling when you look forward to something new in your life until the wait is almost unbearable, but also very exciting? We will take the same thing to the session with ropes.
What is edging in ropes? Interrupting and delaying something tempting. We will play with tension and anticipation. It’s not a mindfuck. We don’t want to confuse our partners, but to clearly set a goal (desire) to which we will approach with small steps. Our perception and sensitivity will shift to maximum. Edging is mostly known as a sexual practice. But it doesn’t have to be, as we will explore in this workshop.
We’ll also talk about how to communicate consent before such a play without spoiling the magic.
