Avatars, play and performance

Tag: shibari

PassiviTV and a movie

In connection to Passivity Rules/Memories of Being Hanged premiering, the makers Tova Gerge and Britta Kiessling hosted three conversations about passivity with three different guests. Kind of like podcasts but live and on screen. Watch them/hear them here:

Marika Leïla Roux aka Gorgone:

PassiviTV the 20th of November was about being tied and tying in the context of rope bondage: what these roles and their respective skill sets can mean, on a metaphorical as well as aesthetic level. Marika Leïla Roux aka Gorgone has many years of exploration and experimentation with the traditional techniques and emotions of Japanese Rope Bondage (Shibari/Kinbaku). Since discovering ropes in 2011, she has been a professional shibari model and rigger, teaching and performing worldwide. She emphasises the artistic, metaphorical and sensual nuances of this practice. An example is her durational project Study on Falling, exploring the relation between the body and gravity in ropes. She is also the founder of the online tutorials platform Shibari Study. 


Artist-researcher Hamish MacPherson:

PassiviTV the 21 of November was about kink and choreography, politics and passivity. Hamish MacPherson is an artist-researcher in the crossovers between choreography and philosophy. He is busy with the dark and complicated aspects of care, pleasure, passivity and power. Lately, he has been working with the zine STILL LIFE, which is about relationships and configurations in which one person is still while others are not. Or where one person is passive and others are active. Or about the different kinds of knowledge that people have about their own and other people’s bodies. And the kind of philosophical and political understandings woven into that knowledge.


Författaren Eli Levén:

PassiviTV den 22 november handlade om queera helgon, makten, maktlösheten och litteraturen som kraftfull betraktare. Eli Levéns båda romaner “Du är rötterna som sover vid mina fötter och håller jorden på plats” (2010) och “Hur jag skulle vilja försvinna” (2020) berör skymningslanden mellan begär och utplåning, upprättelse och förnedring. Med språket som hållande och lyssnande kraft låter Levén ofta sina karaktärer vistas i olika gränstillstånd som också berör det passiva: i sexualiteten, i livets flöden, i närheten till döden och andlighet. Levéns första bok gav upphov till två filmer: guldbaggebelönade Nånting måste gå sönder (2014) och dokumentären Pojktanten (2012).

The movie Passivity Rules/Memories of Being Hanged is also available during the holidays, 22 dec 2020 – 2 jan 2021:

Podcast #17 – Meditation & matter

meditation & matter

Tova Gerge and Gabriel Widing from Nyxxx introduce a work-in-progress couple meditation on matter and time, inspired by interviews with Japanese bondage artists. This podcast is part of a research for a coming piece, and it is made for participation rather than just listening.

To perform the meditation, you need a partner, two ropes (6-8 meters long, 5-6 millimetres thick) and a calm place where you can sit down together.

Avsnitt #9 – Ropes & Roles

nyxxx-pod9

Ebba, Tova & Gabriel host a conversation with the Berlin-based choreographers Dasniya Sommer and Frances d’Ath, that visited Nyxxx & KokoroTwo & Rökridån for a working residency the 28th of April-4th of May in 2015. When the conversation starts, we have just participated in a shibari yoga class guided by Dasniya. From this point of reference, we go on to discuss among many other things exoskeletons, religious metaphors and the invention of rope as a parallel to the invention of the wheel.

Proudly presenting: Dasniya Sommer in residence!

dasniyaworkshop2

During April 27th-May 4th, Nyxxx and coorganizer Kokoro2 host their first artistic residency together. We have the pleasure to receive the Berlin-based choreographer Dasniya Sommer for a week of reflection and exchange. She, like us, has an interest for interaction and intimacy in her performance work. Together, we want to create a platform for exploring such artistic practices.

In connection to the residence, Dasniya will host a couple of public workshop around one of her important working tools, namely rope. She is also performing at 18.00 on Sunday May the 3rd.

Are you interested in participating in one of the workshops, want to know more about the performance or have other questions? Write to kokoro2.info@gmail.com

About Dasniya Sommer

Dasniya Sommer is a choreographer and dancer based in Berlin. She has trained ballet and yoga since early childhood, and received her formal dance training in Berlin and New York. Between 2007 and 2009 Dasniya Sommer co–founded and developed the venue Schwelle7, an experimental project space in Berlin. Her choreographic focus has for many years been Japanese rope bondage (aka shibari) and classical ballet. Drawing also on her academic studies in ethics and aesthetics, her performances often question stereotypical body concepts and related styles of fetishising. In recent years, she has developed a technique she calls ”messy tying” that combines traditional elements with improvisation principles in a kind of ”punk” bondage.

To learn more about her work, visit her home page: http://dasniyasommer.de/

dasniyaportrait

Workshop on Yoga and Shibari with Dasniya Sommer

Saturday May 2nd, 14:00–17:00

Since 2007, Dasniya Sommer conceptualizes workshops which combine shibari and yoga. This will be the first time she offers such a workshop in Sweden. Yoga allows us to develop a sense of our own body anatomy. The simultaneous perception of one’s own breathing and body-map is important, as is to be able to meet other bodies while playing with rope. In some of the asanas (yoga postures) we will integrate ropes. The touch of the rope helps clarify one’s investigation of the posture, and mixes the sensual and manual skills of bodies and ropes. In the second part of the workshop, we mix different rope techniques and stir things up. In pair or group situations in which we develop a bodily conversation, we see expressions of queer, grotesque or purely abstract play. We will work here also with methods drawn from dance and contact improvisation, and elements from role-playing games.

Beginners in yoga and rope are equally welcome. There are still free spots.

dasniyaworkshop

Workshop on Self-Suspension in ropes with Dasniya Sommer

Sunday May 3rd, 14:00–17:00

The work MA√ 15 { idiosyncrasy } || sin x = ly – fx2 (see documentation here ) is probably Dasniya Sommer’s most famous self-suspension piece. It gained wider recognition in contemporary dance in 2009 and toured internationally. While acrobatic endurance and virtuosity is one possibility with self-suspension work, there are also many other aspects that this expression allows. It is a dialogue with one’s own body and limits as well as with gravity and sensory experience. It is an opportunity for both meditation and playful exploration. In this workshop, Dasniya Sommer gives tools for entering this practice from the angles that are interesting for the individual, in a group of no more than 10 people.
Some prior experience with shibari technique is beneficial. The workshop is preliminary fully booked.

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