Also unexpectedly one of the places I’ve long wanted to visit has fallen into my lap, and I shall be wandering north- and eastwards in three weeks with Dasniya for a workshop in Helsinki.

Self-Suspension Workshop in February

Am Samstag den 11. Februar von 14-20 Uhr.

In diesem Kurs behalten alle die Seile in den eigenen Händen. Wir üben quasi Aerial-Multitasking. Dazu gehören Seil- und Atemtechniken mit physischen Intensitäten, Entspannungsmomenten und Kraft zu koordinieren… Knotentechnisch verwenden wir traditionelles, und unseren liebgewonnen Anarchostil*.

Kosten 40 Euro.
Anmeldung und Info: email hidden; JavaScript is required
dasniyasommner.de

On Saturday 11th, 14-20 h.

We will take apart the complex act of self- suspension. Coordinating rope technique, strength, breath, relaxation and physical intensities in the air.
Using traditional knots and our beloved anarchic style*.

Costs: 40 Euro.
More information and registration: email hidden; JavaScript is required
dasniyasommner.de

Dasniya started with some (gentle) bootcamp warmup, and then spent the first two or three hours teaching basic tying and harnesses for hips, legs, torso, then going on to full-suspensions and showing some more painful possibilities like the single-bound-leg inverted hanging. Dinner was all us around the table, which is why Alte Kantine is so perfect for these classes and workshops, with much talking about philosophical, social, feminist and gender issues in BDSM and shibari.

And so on to February, more yoga and shibari classes every Wednesday evening in the Alte Kantine, and a trip for Dasniya at the end of the month north and east to Finland to teach in Helsinki.

Jeden Mittwoch Yoga & Shibari im Wedding.
1., 8., 15.,22., 29.  Februar, 19-23 Uhr.
Ort: Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Alte Kantine, Teatris, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin,
U8 Pankstr/U9 Osloerstr.
Kosten 20/15 Euro
Workshop Text Deutsch

Every Wednesday there will be Yoga & Shibari in Berlin-Wedding.
February 1., 8., 15., 22., 29.
Location: Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Alte Kantine, Teatris, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin, U8Pankstr/ U9 Osloerstr.
Costs: 20/15 Euro
Workshop text english

dasniya self-suspended and reading

It premieres on 26th January at Vooruit in Ghent.

SOIT/Hans Van den Broeck – Messiah Run

Presented as part of the Adelaide Festival Centre’s inSPACE:development Program, Reassessment examines concepts surrounding Self-Worth, perception and the consequences of being seen as “unworthy”.

WHERE: Rehearsal room 2 – Adelaide Festival Centre (meet 15 minutes prior at the foyer of the Dunstan Playhouse)
WHEN: January 26 at 4pm and 27 at 7pm
COST: Pay what you can donation

RSVP: email hidden; JavaScript is required

ARTISTS:
choreography and performance: DANIEL JABER
soundtrack: DJ TR!P
texts: GABRIELLE NANKIVELL
animation: MATTHIAS WALDT
lighting design and production: DANIEL BARBER

** CONTAINS NUDITY AND COARSE LANGUAGE

Hope to see you there!

Daniel Jaber

Reassessment – Daniel Jaber

The last two weeks also, he has been coming to Dasniya’s regular Wednesday night yoga and shibari classes, and was so taken by being suspended last week he’s probably going to come back next week also.

This week Dasniya demonstrated a three-fold tying, starting with a more traditional figure, one from Arisue Go where the hands are in prayer position behind the back and the arms are bound , then lying on the floor and suspending a body part or parts, and thirdly our anarchic messy tying.

Thomas got lucky and Dasniya showed this on him, and then I got lucky having him tie me, later joined by Dasniya, and more than an hour and an half later was loosened from the ropes.

Some photos …

Dasniya and Thomas Shibari – 1

Dasniya and Thomas Shibari – 2

Dasniya and Thomas Shibari – 3

Dasniya and Thomas Shibari – 4

Dasniya and Thomas Shibari – 5

Dasniya and Thomas Shibari – 6

Weekly Yoga & Shibari

Jeden Mittwoch Yoga & Shibari im Wedding. 4., 11., 18., 25. Januar, 19-23 Uhr.

Ort: Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Teatris, Alte Kantine, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin,
U8 Pankstr/U9 Osloerstr.

Kosten 20/15 Euro

Every Wednesday there will be Yoga & Shibari in Berlin-Wedding. January 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th.

Location: Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Teatris, Alte Kantine, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin,
U8Pankstr/ U9 Osloerstr. 

Costs: 20/15 Euro

Workshop text english

Self-Suspension Workshop

Am Sonntag den 22. Januar von 14-20 Uhr. In diesem Kurs behalten alle die Seile in den eigenen Händen. Wir üben quasi Aerial-Multitasking. Dazu gehören Seil- und Atemtechniken mit physischen Intensitäten, Entspannungsmomenten und Kraft zu koordinieren… Knotentechnisch verwenden wir traditionelles, und unseren liebgewonnen Anarchostil*.

Kosten 40 Euro. Anmeldung und Info: email hidden; JavaScript is required

Self-Suspension Workshop in January, on Sunday 22nd, 2pm-8pm.
We will take apart the complex act of self-suspension. Coordinating rope technique, strength, breath, relaxation and physical intensities in the air, using traditional knots and our beloved anarchic style*.

Costs: 40 Euro. More information and registration: email hidden; JavaScript is required

So, all the information is here: the n+2 dimensional space for n>1/ Yoga & Shibari Berlin Dezember

And here is the other pertinent stuff for the rest of the month:

1) Screening

Tomorrow we will be showing the video of the Performance ‘n+2 dimensional space for n >1′ after the ‘Yoga & Shibari’ Workshop. Frances and I have been in residence at Bains Connective, in Brussels. We have been trying to question conventional Shibari/Bondage tying and performance methods, in terms of constellation, technique and dynamic handling of ropes. Text

We would be very happy to see you, and talk after the screening. Tea and sweets will be there : )

Frances & Dasniya

When: Wednesday December 14th, appr. 22.30 h, after the workshop
Where: Uferhallen Kulturwerkstatt, Alte Kantine, Teatris, Uferstr. 8-11, 13357 Berlin, U8 Pankstr/U9 Osloerstr, Map

2) Wednesdays ‘Yoga & Shibari’ in December:

December 14th and 21st from 19 -23 h in Wedding.

The workshop combines Yoga and Japanese rope Bondage… Class description

3) Shibari Technique Workshop

Sunday, December 18th, 14-20 h.

For every one who longs for rope inspiration before christmas, or enjoys a cosy Shibari Sunday. More information and registration: email hidden; JavaScript is required, costs: 40 euro

4) *Christmas Gift*:

Present a three hour workshop voucher to a friend, to get introduced to the art of tying, or present a rope session to yourself with Dasniya Sommer. More information: email hidden; JavaScript is required

n+2 negative space

Brussels. It took longer to get from Schönefeld airport to home than from Brussels to Berlin. Monday was a day to pass without the hectic routine of the previous weeks. No rising in a stupor, no walking the route to and from Bains, no rehearsals on green dance floor, no baguettes and coffee for lunch, nor cooking in the kitchen.

Some organising of suitcases and luggage which results in meeting the weight allowance for what goes beneath in the hold, and transferring the excess to carry-on. Hence, carry-on weighs more than suitcase.

I meet Gala in Parvais/Vorplein around lunch. We begin with a coffee, continue with another, and talk for hours. One of the results of that is she is off to PAF Riems in a week, and we have plans perhaps to be there in late January. So it seems I’ll be passing through Brussels again soon.

We amble up to the commune for the market, and I discover the delights of Piadina. That it is made with pig lard only adds to the oral splendour. Dasniya joins us after a morning finding her way through an old cemetery south of Parc Dudin.

And then to finish packing, to airport, to sleep on the flight, to arrive.

the n+2 dimensional space

n+2 dimensional space – Dasniya

n+2 Lab Out

To Thursday then. A day for technical sortings out, with Silvano calmly attending to our needs, and the mess we had been accruing getting shifted to one side to be replaced with lights and other equipment. We worked out a couple more sections before, after, around this, and got through most of the list piled up before ‘tech run’.

After six o’clock, on our own, we prepared for our own run, which fell apart right where I begin tying Dasniya. This messy tying breeds uncertainty. Will the ropes hold or slip? Cinch in a bad place or begin sliding apart until all previous efforts are rendered null? It’s so unpredictable for me and the anxiety of it was making it impossible to even consider why I might be doing this, to concentrate on performing and directorial issues.

To make a performance in which the audience sees suffering or experiences it personally is one thing, and a thing which I’ve always had an attraction for. Against that, the last thing I want to do is cause the performers I work with to suffer, for the performance to be an unpleasant endurance. It’s easy enough when one is outside and observing something not working and causing pain to stop it, take a pause, try it in another way. When I’m inside it myself though, this ability vanishes. And so I became quite overwrought because of lengths of recalcitrant rope.

After much experimenting, failing, trying other approaches, we had something that worked, and commenced the run again. Alas what worked for me did not for Dasniya, and sliding the ropes off thwarted her.

Thursday finished around eleven in the evening, and Friday began twelve hours later.

…

Warming up three times, rehearsing some parts, getting through a dress run with Silvano, taking pauses, rummaging through the checklist, it starts, we wait, Jolivet begins, Ligeti, we progress through the scenes (five or seven depending on how you count), and it becomes over.

…

We have the videos, and some time next week photos from Silvano, so these shall make it here and elsewhere in due course. Today and Sunday we are still at Bains with a Yoga and Shibari workshop (which fortuitously has led to some China and South-East Asia connections), and Monday afternoon the flight (would that it were the train) t0 Berlin.

Some thank yous:

Bains Connective have made these two weeks possible and a joy in many ways. Dasniya and I would like to thank both Lilia and Diana for inviting us and our ropes. A particular mention must be for Silvano, for numerous things, not the least for operating sound, lights, filming with two cameras, taking photos, drilling suspension points, and keeping everything running smoothly. Also to Gala, who came in on Tuesday, watched through our first attempt at a run, gave an hour of of very appreciated notes, and cooked us dinner.

I spent some time on my own, working my way through Gala’s notes, trying to change things into something I can feel comfortable with, analysing each scene to define the changing relationship to the ropes, getting stuck once more on the only scene without ropes. It wasn’t until around 2 o’clock, schedules for the coming days written up, all the impedimenta between us and Friday evening accounted for, that we began rehearsing.

Yesterday in the last time before our first run-through, we played through a scene of tying each other together, which ends on the floor and somehow became tormenting each other, savaging nipples, lips, nostrils with pinching toes. We worked through this again, from my self-bondage (for some reason I think of Ophelia and Gertrude, or more precisely of what I imagine Daniel Schlusser’s recent performance looked like), to paired humiliation (which is really not the right work, it’s more of causing discomfort with rope), and through this scene of shame.

I’d found a video of Osada Steve tying Madame Butterfly, and this roughness, along with some videos we’ve watched a while ago of Japanese Shibari masters grunting and muttering as they tie fell into this scene today. It’s a little rough, also painful, and has sometimes for me a disturbing air about it.

Dasniya and I swapped roles in the final scene in darkness. Now she ties part of the room into an installation while I am outside untying the remaining ropes. She thought this scene should go for around half an hour or more, depending on the first half.

I find myself spending much time disentangling nests of ropes that are the leftovers from each scene and run-through, coiling, laying them in order … We began a run-through around 6 o’clock, this time taking 45 minutes. I’m not sure if we were much slower, or if all the scenes together now last that long, or if yesterday we were just fast with nerves. It’s a lot for only a few days rehearsing.

Questions of music remain. We’re using André Jolivet at the beginning, and some Ligeti also – both wind chamber music compositions. Throbbing Gristle also make an appearance. This is, along with lights, something for tomorrow to sort out. I find it difficult being on the inside to hear the music; it’s not like we are counting to it, so it rapidly leaves my attention. Everything is reducing to technical questions, transitions, where to go when so it works with what comes later, all the usual arrangements of objects in space over time. What it looks like by this time tomorrow is probably mostly what it will be for Friday.