Akira Nawa

she/her, they/them

Akira Nawa is an artist inserted in the rope world for 10 years and dedicates her profissional life to shibari since 2016. She opened the first shibari studio in Brazil and focus her role as an educator in to popularize this art and make it accessible and to LGBTQIA+ community and woman, also working in to creating a safe space. Her signature as an artist and educator is based in the connection and communication by ropes, using this as a tool to access emotions and sensations.

Luna Rope

she/her

Luna Rope is a 22 years old artist from Rio de Janeiro that works with performance, music, visual comunication and design. Finding a big space to create with ropes and explore sensations, she fell in love with Shibari and started her journey as a rope bottom. Now the rope art is one of the most present elements in her creative process and she became part of the community also as a rigger.


Apikoros

they/them

Apikoros is an artist and educator focused on movement, culture, and touch. They have been teaching tying since 2015. In addition to their experience with rope, Apikoros draws on their background in physical theater, dance, continental philosophy, gender and sexuality studies.


CARITIA

no pronouns

is a Berlin based, British born queer womxn of colour whose creativity runs through connection to energies, ritual and bodies. She creates art and altered states through the body and ropes. She has been practicing shibari for 10+ years as a rigger an occasionally as a model.

BISHOP BLACK

he/him

Bishop Black is a performance artist and porn performer based in Berlin. He works with themes of BDSM, erotic performance, sexuality and dance. He has performed for pieces for theaters such as the Berliner Ensemble and Deutsche Opera, as well as being a backup dancer for several prominent artists and musicians. His solo show “Becoming my body”, debuted in Berlin in 2019. He has also worked for various prominent companies in both mainstream and alternative pornography.


CECI FEROX

they/them

Ceci Ferox is a sexologist, kink activist, and rope nerd from Helsinki, Finland. They have been organizing rope events and teaching shibari since 2014. Ceci teaches japanese rope bondage from top, bottom and switch perspectives. They like to focus on elements of technique and communication rather than patterns and sequences. They draw on their expertise as a community educator to bring people together.

“My goal is to create safer spaces for people to communicate through rope.”

Ceci‘s tying is influenced by traditional Japanese styles as well as contemporary western organic and artistic tying. They fluctuate between hyper-technical and chaotic tying, but have a constant focus on connection and communication. Ceci‘s ties is created in the moment, inspired by each situation and partner.

“Rope for me is a medium for meditation, empowerment, intimacy, and sexy times. It is also about continuous learning and wonder.”

Kauri

(they/them)

Kauri is Helsinki-based versatile queer contemporary dance artist and a performer with a master’s degree in dance performance and a long background in music, performance art and theatre. Kauri loves ropes where playfulness, humour, dealing with anxiety, fear and relief can take place simultaneously. They’re interested in motion, weight and communication – and seeing other under 160 cm rigging.

Kleotress

(they/them)

Kleotress is a Helsinki based queer and nonbinary midwife-to-be, sex and human rights activist and mental health awareness advocate. As a switchy kinkster they enjoy being both a playful sadist and a humble human toy. They see ropes as a mean of communication and like to explore the corporeal extremities, humiliation and unpredictability.


FUOCO

she/her

fuoco began her rope journey as a bottom in Phoenix in 2012. She is switchy in rope and a vocal advocate for rope bottoms.When she’s not doing rope, fuoco is a professional circus artist. constantly training to build strength and flexibility. Her dedicated study of the mechanics of the body make her especially interested in developing more comprehensive education for bottoms informed by these practices.You can find her teaching at cons and weekend intensives across North America and Europe, and you can access some of her teachings on Shibari Study.

In recent years fuoco has become passionate about transformative justice practices and connecting the work of kinky community building to larger abolitionist struggles. She’s incredibly passionate about developing our collective capacity to respond to harm that occurs within our communities with care and compassion.


GESTALTA

they/them

I was introduced to shibari in 2007 and have been immersed in it ever since. My interest was initially sparked by the aesthetic; the seemingly organic structure of rope melding with flesh, in the works of Nobyoshi Araki, and other artists whose works I had collected in scraps from the few Japanese publications available.

As I began to practice it myself I also found an interest in exploring the potential of ropes to open up new ways to connect with the body, with other people, and the effects of pushing myself into seemingly ‘extreme’ psychological and physical states.
I began using shibari in performance in around 2009 and developed an interest in impermanent structures, and the fragile balances found between us, our environment, and within intimate connections.
Although I see shibari very much as an art form, it is also important to me that it’s roots in pornography are not glossed over; I see it also as a powerful way of reconciling any perceived conflict between art and sex and exploring the relationship between the two.

Aleks

coming soon


Hua Hua

she/her

hua hua is a Shibari artist and educator from the UK and based in Shanghai.  She is the co-founder of BORDERLINE, a platform dedicated to rope art and  related behavioural art activities and performances.  She believes that rope bondage is a process of exploring intimacy, vulnerability and intimacy. She regularly performs and teaches in Shanghai and also participates in many collaborative interactive art projects. In addition to her focus on Shibari/Kinbaku, her art works also includes nude photography, physical theatre, installation art, and facilitating immersive intimate experiences.


Kanna & Kagura

x-gender & she/her

縄師 神凪 Nawashi Kanna and 神楽 Kagura are a Japanese queer rope couple that have been together for 14years.

They have traveled around the world to teach and perform Japanese Kinbaku. Kanna succeeded from 明智伝鬼 Akechi Denki and has developed. Kanna style is Semenawa style which draws inspiration from Hojojutsu 捕縄術, is very restrictive and includes complete control of the body and often plays with the breath.

“We believe that rope has no gender or borders, and rope should be for everyone, and could be fun for both the rigger and the model.”


Midori

she/her

Trailblazing educator, sexologist, artist, and irritant to banality, Midori founded Rope Dojo and ForteFemme: Women’s Dominance Intensive. She penned the first English instruction book on Shibari titled, “Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage” in 2001, paving the way to the popularity of rope. Dan Savage calls her the “Super Nova of Kink,” while others affectionately call her Auntie Midori for her cool, tell-it-like-it-is, funny, reality-based teaching. 

She is also the author of “Wild Side Sex,” “Master Han’s Daughter,” and “Silk Threads.”


Misungui

she/her

Misungui is a performer, model, domina, sex educator … but above all she is a political animal. It was during her university studies, while studying gender, that she became interested in pornography and the feminist movements that took hold of it. She quickly went from theory to practice and has since participated in the creation of images, videos, shows and workshops that explore nudity, sexuality, the relationship between private and public, intimacy, modesty. and the evil ….
Everything we have to do is just a touch away, the common thread of which is the search for freedom, self-management, self-determination.

Michel Rebelle

he/him

Michel Rebelle has discovered and practices kinbaku with Misungui more than four years ago, allowing them to develop a close complicity and trust. Shibari has become a real passion for Michel who felt addict to this kind of bondage and submission. When tied up, Michel is “out of the world” and leaves for another space time area, where nothing exists but the letting go offered by his Mistress.


PAULINE MASSIMO

they/them or no pronouns

Pauline Massimo is an interdisciplinary human originally from Brazil and based in Barcelona, which mostly focused in perform, teach, photograph and organise Shibari related events professionally, but with experience background in circus, yoga, dance, plastic and conceptual art, and more.

They started into Shibari around mid-2012 and since then was a non-stop journey in self-discovery and learning process. They have been into a vast number of workshops and have equally experienced as a rope model, rigging and self-tying.

Pauline is educated and interested in the broader range that Shibari can provide as a practice, like classic Japanese style as more contemporary mixed styles, they are mostly interested in the mental and physical challenge that this practicum can offer as much as the challenge of creating experiences that adapt for different tastes and capabilities.

FABIANA IRACI

she/her

Fabiana Iraci is from Venezuela, based in Barcelona now. She initially studied contemporary dance for many years becoming a professional, and side graduated in Photography. Around when she was 20 years old she started getting involved and curious about Yoga and since then her life changed completely finding the benefits of different yoga practices in which she specialized at, including Iyengar yoga. Then in 2020 she found out about Espacio Nos and from getting in touch to teach yoga at the space, she also got very interested in experiencing Shibari and finding a new form of study of the body and mind infusing with her knowledge previously from dance and yoga.


Ropespaced/Cait

they/them or she/her

Ropespaced is a switchy, kinky nurse with a passion for rope education. They have been active in the community since 2014 as a bottom, top, and self-tyer. They have been teaching since 2017 and joined Maine’s Black Knot Rope Group as a leader in 2018. Their primary focuses at this time are bringing more health and safety, intermediate-level, and bottom-focused education to the rope community.

Koalafied

they/them

Koalafied_ has been active in the local community since 2013. They strongly gravitated towards rope bondage and have 6 years of self-tying, rope topping, and bottoming experience. Over the years, they have grown and cultivated their style through community and education. The importance of connection and energy exchange through rope has always been what has drawn them and kept them captivated by it over the years. Their style is rhythmic, sensual, and sometimes sadistic with a dash of primal aggression. They are also the founding member of Black Knot Rope Group (B.K.R.G.) in Southern Maine, which has been running successfully for two years with their rope partners’ help.


SOPHIA ROSE

she/her

Sophia (she/her) is a heart-led, London based educator, whose interest and passion lies in what’s beneath the surface. She is curious about physical practices as tools for creative expression, to explore and move through the forever developing relationship between our bodies and minds. She believes challenging the status quo should extend to all aspects of ourselves and areas of our lives, to work towards liberation for all from oppressive narratives, structures, and systems.


SUBAY

she/her or no pronouns

Subay is a Shibari artist and founder of Kokoro Studio based in Hong Kong.

Subay was first introduced to Shibari eight years ago when she was fascinated by its aesthetics, eroticism and emotions.  She spent the first few years exploring and learning the different styles from several well-respected nawashi in Japan.  In 2014, she met and was deeply inspired by Yukimura Haruki sensei.  Afterwards, she dedicated herself to the study of traditional Japanese style.  In 2015, Subay met Naka Akira sensei and chose to focus her study on sensei’s style of semenawa.  She continues to explore her own style of semenawa which is both feminine and inclusive.

In March 2018, Subay had the honour of performing at Onna Matsuri (おんあ祭り) in Tokyo.  In November 2018, she had the privilege to tie at Naka sensei’s satsuei-kai (縄奈加會緊縛撮影会) and in November 2019, she assisted Naka sensei in his workshops in San Francisco.

Subay teaches and performs internationally, including Asia, Europe and US.  Her teaching focuses on the “why”, the feelings, the emotions, and provides insights on the perspective of both the rope top and the rope bottom.