with Joan von Brook & Nikoleta Ginger
The floor is not merely a place to start before suspension, and a partial is not simply a step towards something bigger. Both can become a playground for movement, interaction, and creative rope practice.
In this workshop, we will explore how to use rope, body mechanics, balance, tension, and positioning to create playful and dynamic situations. We will work with floorwork and partial suspensions, discovering how even relatively simple structures can become much more interesting when we stop treating them as fixed shapes and start exploring what they allow us to do.
A central part of our exploration will be the dialogue between leading and following. We will play with transitions, asymmetry, predicaments, teasing, and a healthy amount of silliness. Sometimes we will follow the rope, sometimes the body, and sometimes an idea that makes absolutely no sense until we try it.
We will explore how to play with the mind as well as the body. The aim is not to make rope more serious or to chase ever more demanding shapes, but to discover how much freedom, connection, and enjoyment can emerge when we allow ourselves to approach it with curiosity and a lighter touch.
Playfulness is not about abandoning technique, but about using technical understanding to create more freedom, responsiveness, and unexpected possibilities. We will pay close attention to anatomy, body mechanics, physical feedback, and the way structures behave, using that understanding to make our play more varied, intentional, and sustainable.
Expect a hands-on workshop combining technical guidance, demonstrations, and guided exercises with plenty of space for improvisation, experimentation, and discovering what you and your partner can create together. We will work with the rope, the body, and the mind—and perhaps discover that things don't always have to be quite as serious as we sometimes make them.
This is a hands-on workshop with demonstrations, technical guidance, partner exercises, and guided improvisation. We will alternate between learning concrete skills and exploring how to use them in more spontaneous and playful ways. &
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Riggers should be able to handle rope without constant visual control and have comfortable floor-tying skills and familiarity with basic single and/or double-column ties are required.
Models should be able to recognize signs of nerve or other physical injury and and to speak up and stop when something does not feel right.
No advanced suspension experience is assumed, but participants should be comfortable exploring the relevant partial suspension techniques safely.
Open communication, curiosity, and a willingness to experiment are essential.
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You need to come with a partner. Switching will be possible, sometimes even during one exercise.
Bring 6-8 ropes, your safety tool, and comfortable clothing.
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Joan von Brook is a presenter, perfomer, rope bottom, rigger and co-founder of Subspace studio in Prague, Czech Republic. She is a shibari addict since 2013. First as a rope-bottom, but almost immediately started also tying actively. She has attended many workshops on both sides of ropes. As a rigger, she is mostly influenced by Soptik and A-Nicolas. As a bottom, she greatly benefits from her experience with
challenging ties either in Naka style or from bottoming for Tifereth and A-Nicolas. Her passion is sharing information about rope-bottoming both for floorwork and suspensions, finding what is already there in people, building confidence and autonomy of both parties and creating flow through movement, small or big. Joan has various sports and dancing background, and loves to look at body and mind as an inseperable unit.Nikoleta Ginger has been practicing
Shibari since 2018, exploring both sides of the rope. Her practice is
influenced by Naka-ryu and Nicolas-ryu, with a particular focus on Yukimura-ryu over the past three years. As a model, Nikoleta is expressive, responsive and emotionally engaged. She is drawn to
exploring vulnerability, shame, surrender, intimacy and deep
emotional states, valuing honest and spontaneous reactions over
performing for the rigger. For her, tying is a dialogue. Communication happens through the body, breath, movement and expression — responding to the rigger while allowing herself to be genuinely affected by the rope and the interaction.