Christian Red and I rehearse for our Strappado For Suspension class for Shibari Study. As we are preparing for a class this is quite chatty and chill rather than an intense session. We discuss things we want to mention in the class, and just joke around a little, revisiting past scenes we've done together and as chatting about our work more generally, as we work through multiple strappado based suspensions. We start with a face-down position, with my ankles brought up behind me, we come back to the ground, add a hip harness off camera, then retie the strappado for a face-up suspension. Christian brings my hips up into a very hot legs spread position with my head down towards the floor, tying my foot to my wrists to increase the beautiful back bend. All these positions pull the arms tightly behind the back, bringing the elbows and wrists together at the back. I love strappado based ties as they feel very restrictive while also opening and exposing the chest.
This video gives you a behind the scenes look at how Christian and I prepare for classes. Testing out the ties we plan to demonstrate and making note of important points we want to cover. It also shows a bit of how we communicate in rope and how intense a suspension can feel even in a very calm labbing environment. There's some nice spacey Eryn and pain processing faces. I think the main skill I bring to teaching rope is my ability to remain articulate even whilst dangling upside-down in painful suspensions