Public Indecency:

Captivating Audiences In Rope Performances

Instructors: Bondagious & Thumper

price per individual: 

BOUND Members $35 |TIED Members $45 | WRAPPED Members $50

Friday September 20th, 7PM to 10PM

A “decent” person is one who acts according to what is collectively agreed upon, what is expected or ordained. By stepping outside the framework of propriety, we disturb and disrupt the “normal course of things”, we surprise, we divert, we are “indecent”. The intrinsically queer tension this creates is fertile soil for what happens in a scene, on a stage.

This roundtable discussion open to the community at large will set the stage for the weekend performance workshop. We will crowdsource perspectives—armchair reviews, hot takes, pet peeves—on rope performance, and collaboratively build a collective ‘poetics’ of bondage as spectacle.

Participants of the weekend intensive will benefit greatly from being present, but are not required to attend. We will use the consolidated information from this event to seed the opening discussion on Saturday, as we fold new participants into the mix.

About the Instructors:

Bondagious & Thumper

Bondagious (he/him) snared Thumper (he/they) at a rope date in the fall of 2019, and they have been tying tangible and intangible bonds ever since.

Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the duo has studied principally Akechi Kanna-style rope bondage, from official and unofficial sources. They draw inspiration from Barkas and Addie’s approach to rope as a tool for communication and connection, strongly influenced by the teachings of Yukimura Haruki. With backgrounds in the performing arts, they seek opportunities to surprise and delight audiences and each other, drawing on the dynamic, high-impact minimalism of Tifereth and Nicholas Yoroi.

A shared textile fetish inspired them to develop their Exposure and Restraint: clothing play and rope bondage workshop, which they previewed at NARIX Montreal in June 2022. Since then, they have been fortunate to tour this weekend intensive to rope studios in Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, New York City, Chicago, Austin, and Denver.

In their local scene, they co-host Mens Rope Night—an open practice at Tension Montreal for GBTQ+ men who tie men to meet, chat, watch and tie in a secure and supportive environment. This monthly event aims to increase the presence and representation of masc/AMAB people-in-rope.

This fall, they will be headline presenters at Men Roping Men 2024, the first annual weekend rope conference focused on education and community building for men, masc-leaning non-binary/trans/gender non-conforming folks, in San Francisco.

Important Registration Information: