If we think of Japanese-inspired rope bondage as a way to interact and move with another person, a way of dancing with them, then we can also look at how sound can affect our way of tying and being tied. How does music affect a session? How does it affect our movements and emotional state? And how do the sounds we make affect the reactions of the person we are tying with? Our movement and emotional state can be deeply affected by sound. I am sure many have experienced music that makes them feel, dance, and act in certain ways depending on the rhythm, tempo, lyrics, tone, and pitch. As well, sound and music can…

Being in rope can be an incredibly intense experience. The array of sensations and emotions that can be felt is limitless and often ever-changing within the experience of being tied. Processing, managing, and allowing these sensations and emotions requires a continuous, real-time evaluation of what we are feeling, and if we can accept the situation we are in or not. We need to be able to relinquish control and at the same time maintain absolute oversight so that we are able to react appropriately and responsibly. This level of balance is no easy task and exactly what we hope to develop a practice for during this…

The Latin root of ‘humiliation’ is ‘humus’, which translates as ‘earth’ or ‘dirt’. Humiliation is the public failure of one’s status claims. In private, such feeling amount not to humiliation but to painful self-realizations, such as embarrassment. Humiliation is not necessarily shameful. For instance, one could claim that Jesus was crucified and this humiliated, but that he did not feel shame (or so I was told, I was not there). Shame, on the otherhand, is a sort-of subset of humiliation; it is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness…