We have been surprised and gratified by the growing popularity of our on-line shibari classes at ShibariClasses.com. In just the past month, we have had a 50% increase in active students so we must be doing something right. In many ways, it shouldn’t come as a surprise since we offer quality tuition, with time to absorb it, regardless of where ever you are and all for peanuts.
It seems ShibariClasses is a boon to those who don’t have ready access to high-level tuition. The trouble is that only those living in large cities are likely to have a competent teacher nearby but, in most cases, even those will only have a couple of years experience unless you are very lucky. Of course, this always assumes you have the time and the money to take advantage of their tuition but in this day and age, time and money are at a premium for most of us.
If you live out in the sticks or in a country where shibari is still not that developed, it’s even harder. For many, the best they can get locally is tuition from somebody who is only a page or two ahead of themselves. On the other hand, our tutorials offer around 25 years combined experience from Nina and I, backed by tuition from and exposure to some of the world’s most talented nawashi. This means we can offer you a far greater insight to help you tie better with techniques learned from years of practice and quite a few mistakes along the way
I’ll be the first to admit that quality face to face tuition can’t be beaten. However, the big problem is taking everything in and retaining it accurately. If you are like me, without reminders, it is easy to forget a step or miss one point whilst concentrating on another. How often do you wish, a few days after a workshop, you could see that demonstration one more time or even repeat an elusive step till you get it? Video tutorials give you that. Replay as many times as you like; nobody will get impatient or think you stupid. Whilst books and DVD’s let your refer back,, unlike a real-life class, you can’t ask the authors questions easily. The great thing about our tutorials is that you can ask questions and make suggestions in the Q&A forum attached to every class. We can even add to and update the content in response.
On the subject of cost, there’s no comparison between typical fees for workshops and our on-line prices. In fact, most of our tutorials give you 30 days 24/7 access for less that the cost of getting to a free workshop, never mind the price of a paying one! In most cases, you could probably take a different course each month on ShibariClasses for a year for the price of a one day workshop.
Judging by student feedback, it seems what they most appreciate is our innovative ‘ingredients’ based way of teaching. The more we hear, the more we are convinced that the typical learn by rote approach only teaches you to ‘paint by numbers’ in a fairly mechanical way missing the passionate heart of shibari. Having always preached ‘tying people, not parcels’, it seems the wrong direction to approach learning. Only by learning to use rope as a means of communication before tackling all the patterns can you really produce an effect. It’s all about learning to turn your partner on with one rope before adding more, that way each extra rope heightens the effect.
Understanding the ‘ingredients’ of shibari means that the ‘recipes’ start to become self-explanatory. In our on-line shibari classes, you will learn to use the ingredients instinctively to create your own recipes whilst expressing yourself coherently. Knowing how these ingredients work and their capabilities, you will become a much safer rigger because you will start to spot your own mistakes and realise how to correct them. It is for these reasons that we spend so much time on the how and why.
By just learning ties step by step, one can also miss the all important handling techniques of not just the rope but also of how to move your partner. Rope is like love making: It’s not sexy fumbling through 100 positions in a sex manual. It is far better to do a little very well 😉 This is why we believe good technique and handling is so important. It is the vocabulary and syntax of the language of rope. You can’t communicate well with a phrase book as it doesn’t always fit what you want to say; so it is with ties. A standard tie doesn’t fit all sizes or situations, nor is it a magic spell to create sub-space. It’s all in how you do it.
The key to good rope is solid foundations and building connection. In the spirit of innovation and to take the latter deeper, we have been exploring transferable skills from other disciplines like Argentinian tango and tantra for our on-line shibari classes. We will shortly be bringing you the results of our collaboration with an expert in these areas and using it to further develop the latest course, ‘Introducing one-rope techniques’.