In the olden days before Shibari Study and the proliferation of online bondage resources, it was an enormous challenge to learn to tie, never mind start a rope community in a place that is not Japan or a major city in Europe, Australia or America. I was fortunate to have travelled to some of these places all the way from South Africa and to gain knowledge of some techniques. Learning the basics back then required a lot of privilege. With resources like Shibari Study now available online, taught by credible educators, so much more is possible for those of us who are geographically isolated from the broader rope community. I would like to share how we approach teaching and learning rope in Cape Town, South Africa .
With resources like Shibari Study now available online, taught by credible educators, so much more is possible for those of us who are geographically isolated from the broader rope community. Transmitting knowledge is a fundamental part of community building. At Embodiment Rope Space , our primary aim is to impart ways of thinking about safety, consent and negotiation. Rope is really the conduit for these concepts. We do not teach any formal style, but rather teach the fundamental building blocks for this art form as we understand them.
What can you teach if you can’t teach a style? In Japanese rope bondage, certain rope styles or lineages have developed over the last 50+ years. Because of the barriers in access to learning these more ‘formalised’ rope styles in South Africa, we're not able to teach any particular styles here. In our building of a rope community, a style-agnostic approach to rope has been adopted instead.
An upside to this is space for approaches to develop organically from within the community, from our own unique perspective, to meet our own needs. While we do not benefit from the rigour and cultural experience of any single rope lineage or tradition, we are also not as constrained as communities centered around a particular style are. In communities not centered around a particular style, I find that there is much more room for experimentation and self-expression in rope.
While we do not benefit from the rigour and cultural experience of any single rope lineage or tradition, we are also not as constrained as communities centered around a particular style are. A downside to this freedom is that teachers who are able to teach a particular style are also able to enforce a standard when it comes to progressing in that style, often determined by the creator of the style itself. For example, to progress from Level 1 to Level 2 in Kazami-ryu , one needs to be able to tie the gote correctly within a certain time frame. While intimidating, this time trial is essentially a test of a student’s muscle memory – an essential skill for executing suspendable harnesses more safely and efficiently. In a style-agnostic community, there is inherently less focus on doing rope to meet a particular standard – in a sense, it’s a miracle we are practicing rope at all.
Because of the barriers to entry for South Africans, I want my community to benefit from the privilege I have had in being able to learn rope techniques. So how do I promote some level of rigour in my local community without the ability and skill to teach a formal style?
Although I am able to tie forms from a few styles, it would be wrong to teach patterns that I don’t have consent to transmit. Personally, I have stuck to teaching basics (single- and double-column ties, frictions, creating wraps, cinches, reinforced double bights) to give students a solid understanding of the building blocks of patterns. When they encounter new patterns online, for example on Shibari Study, or in-person at workshops, they’ll have a better understanding of how harnesses are constructed because the foundation has been laid for them, which makes taking up new information easier. I also consider it morally dubious to make money off of teaching patterns that you have not been given consent to teach by those who developed those ties themselves or inherited them from their teachers.
There is so much that can be learned and shared with floor-based, simple tying using only the fundamentals… Something I would like to highlight is that there is so much that can be learned and shared with floor-based, simple tying using only the fundamentals described above. My own practice deepened so much with the decision to tie exclusively on the floor for a while. There’s time to notice the subtleties and really tune into your partner’s experience so much more. For me, tying is about emotional voyeurism as much as it is about the eroticism of a body in rope. I get to really indulge in the feelings of the bottom by having a solid knowledge of very basic technical rope skills. I share this insight in all of my classes to encourage people to take their learning journey slow. We’re not in a rush to develop our skills locally. We encourage slow, intentional expansion of risk-profiles for our community.
Using Shibari Study as a teaching tool Accessing (relatively) affordable content by reputable teachers is a game changer. A method we are experimenting with is hosting “intermediate” jams (i.e. only open to students who have completed our beginners’ course) where we watch and practice a Shibari Study tie together. This way, we are not directly teaching our attendees content from the site, but providing a space wherein we can learn and practice these teachings together with others. More experienced tops are able to give less experienced tops input on placement and tension. More experienced bottoms are able to describe how certain harnesses feel compared to others they have been in.
More experienced tops are able to give less experienced tops input on placement and tension. More experienced bottoms are able to describe how certain harnesses feel compared to others they have been in. We provide a space for people to figure things out, rather than limiting ourselves to what we can teach. What we have is not perfect, but it is good. It's a beautiful thing to see people coming together to give each other permission to center their pleasure and joy in a complex and often disheartening socio-economic climate.
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