Freedom through surrender
by Andy Buru
This is a workshop for people who want to explore their relationship to power/surrender, sexuality/creativity, pain/pleasure, restriction/freedom, animal/divine.
How do you relate to the topic of surrender and what is surrender to you?
This workshop will investigate themes of power, control, surrender, and submission; and how they affect us, from the bedroom to our relationships and everyday life. To be bound is, in many ways, to unconditionally belong.
Practising rope bondage is a methodology for many different aspects of relating. It is an embodied and ritualistic practice in the juxtaposition between safety and bravery. Why rope and bondage? Because they together create a soft yet powerful experience that is accessible to many, without being kinky, or into BDSM, or sex geek, or guru. Of course, you are still most welcome if you are.
You will be fully clothed during the workshop.
Freedom / Surrender
Physically tied; sometimes it mirrors the emotional body; other times it contradicts; emotionally free? Or emotionally bound, what about the body then? Free from responsibility, but at the same time stripped of our freedom. Of course, one can always say stop or no, but what happens if we stay in this state of dependency. Take a breath and feel. That is quite rare in this age of the individual, which is so defined by wanting something and being someone.
Some Zen Buddhist masters several thousands of years ago claimed that satori, the state of bliss, is reached by letting go of our cravings and our rejections. Still, that feels far off these days. And what happens to consent in this place of unconditional belonging? Likely, there is no definite answer to any of the questions that might be awoken from the words above. Still, luckily, this workshop is an individual journey and a group choreography, so you get to experience your answer yourself.
We will dedicate two and a half days to this process, and in the meantime, you will also learn some basic rope bondage techniques inspired by Japanese Shibari and Kinbaku.
More concretely, in this workshop, you will work with:
- Surrender and submission, as a meditation
- Ritualized play with power and control.
- Approaching consent as feeling together.
- Rope bondage muscle memory for improvisation.
- Relating to passivity and acceptance while being bound.
- Remembering your pleasure while holding space for another.
- Dancing in rope, by acting and reacting together.
- Physical safety (breathing, blood circulation, and nerve pressure).
- Emotional safety (triggers, traumas, and boundaries).
- Tying with many different people (optional, you can also tie with only one person).
- Being tied by many different people (optional, you can also be tied by only one person).
- Being witnessed in vulnerability and many different emotions.
- Understanding the symbolic body and senses in bondage.
- Applying surrender in your everyday life
- Being playful and having fun.
A mindful and appreciative climate is a concern for me, in which people of all gender identities, sexual orientations, and preferences feel comfortable. If you have specific physical or emotional needs or desires, please let me know so that the workshop is as comfortable as possible for you.
Language: The workshop will be held in English.
Date and times: Friday 21st January – Sunday 23rd January 2022
( Friday 18:30 – 21:30 / Saturday 10:00 – 18:00 / Sunday 10:00 – 18:00 )
On saturday there will be an optional evening ritual from 19:00 – 21:00.
Location: 1020 Vienna, Heinestraße 20, Number 16, 3rd floor
Ticket-Fee: The workshop costs 270 Euro per person for the whole weekend. (If financial reasons prevent you from participating, please contact me so that we can find a solution together.)
Registration: You can register alone or with (a) partner(s)/friend(s) via sascha@mehrspueren.at. For the registration I need your full name, your gender identity and your sexual orientation. The reason for this is that maximum 40 % of the tickets will be given to cis-hetero-men. (By “cis-hetero-men” I mean heterosexual men whose gender assigned at birth is consistent with their gender identity.)
Number of participants: Between 12 people (min.) and 18 people (max.) will be participating at the workshop.
COVID-19: During the workshop the current corona measures and access restrictions apply. At the moment this means you have to be either recovered from COVID or you have to be fully vaccinated. If the workshop will be cancelled due to corona, you will be refunded your ticket fee.
About Andy Buru
My work aims to create a magical room where people can rest, heal and grow. My tools, spirit and experiences spring from neurosemantic team building, medical massage therapy and European and Japanese rope bondage. I am a student of theatre, a former organizational coach, a conscious kinkster, and a teacher of European and Japanese rope bondage. Living in Stockholm, Sweden and working around northern Europe. During my fifteen years of BDSM, I have been a slave, an owner, a hedonist, a purist, a magician, and a slut.