Studio Friction Fundraiser
Free - but please donate if you can
Join us for an evening of education, skill-sharing, discussion, and community-building, all in support of the premier rope education center in Denver: Studio Friction! Whether you are brand new to the scene and looking forward to visiting our space when the pandemic settles down, or if you are already part of our open and caring rope community here, this event will have something for you!
For health and safety reasons, this fundraising event will be held entirely online. We're so excited to give you a great big (consensual) hug when we open just as soon as it is safe to do so, but in the meantime, we're taking care of the folks around us by keeping things virtual.
Denver has been in covid restrictions for nearly 10 months and Studio Friction, like many small local non-profit organizations, needs to lean on the generosity of the community that we support in order to get through these tough times.
Studio Friction is an organization that is run entirely by volunteers from within the community. We are a dedicated group of kinksters, rope enthusiasts, aerial artists, and sex-positivity advocates working towards building and sustaining the communities that we crave and providing the resources and education that are needed to achieve that goal. Every single one of our world-class performers and educators for this event are donating their time and expertise to keep this space open.
This lockdown has been tough on all of us, for sure, but we have faith in the resilience and support of this community, and we're already looking forward to seeing you on the other side!
Schedule:
7pm - 7:50pm Main Lobby:
Opening Session/ Rules and Agreements / Studio Friction Board Chat / Q and A - Hosted by the @theshamanatrix
8pm - 8:50pm
The Loft: Performance live from Studio Friction - Goddess_Sphinx and Switchtext
The Champaign Room: Tempo - Traveling Kinky (BDSM 130)
Front Room: Mtngrrl - Clothing Optional Yoga
The Teal Couch: Social time hosted by Tyger
9pm-9:50pm
The Loft: Lunatic Bound - Introduction to Sadistic Bondage
Front Room: Creative Mayhem - Kink & Tech: Understanding Online Privacy
The Champaign Room: Thor - Rope Bondage 101
The Teal Couch: Social time hosted by Smitten_
10pm-10:50pm
The Loft: Performance live from Studio Friction - Maxyisfast and PrimalFox
The Champaign Room: Shay Tiziano - Present - Mindfulness and flow for self-tying
Front Room: Ms. Doctor - Bottoming Round Table: Adapting ties for success
Schedule with Bios and Class Descriptions:
7pm - 7:40pm
Main Lobby:
Opening Session/ Rules and Agreements / Studio Friction Board Chat / Q and A - Hosted by the @theshamanatrix
8pm - 8:50pm
The Loft: Performance live from Studio Friction - Goddess_Sphinx and Switchtext
Switchtext (He, Him) is a designer and a co-founder and creative director of Studio Friction. He is more interested in sensations and understanding the elements of rope bondage than mastering someone’s specific pattern. Switchtext has been tying for 14 years. He has learned so much in that time and enjoys knowing he has so much more to learn.
Goddess_Sphinx (She, Her) is an eclectic kinkster who recently started a love affair with rope bondage. She strives to bring a deep presence and enthusiasm to each moment and loves to seek out new experiences. A fan of bondage and power dynamics, she brings to the table a strong knowledge of how bodies and minds work. Goddess_Sphinx continues to work towards achieving integration of her kinky self and revels in her journey.
The Champaign Room: Tempo - Traveling Kinky (BDSM 130)
In kink, we explore our minds, bodies, sexuality, and beyond. We can take our exploration even further by traveling outside our own communities. This guided discussion will help students uncover tips and special considerations when traveling to other communities, major events, and even when traveling solo. Bring your questions about how to plan, pack, play while traveling.
Tempo (He/Him) is a traveling top who has visited different communities and different countries to learn from the resident experts and masters of different journeys of kink. He takes what he learns to bring back to his present home community in Boise, ID where he hosts Boise Rope Jam. He primarily seeks out rope instructors to help guide him on his journey for rope mastery. True to his name, much of his play involves weaving music into his scenes. Whether it be occupational- or kink-related, his true calling is teaching. Outside the kink community, Tempo teaches for a regionally accredited college and manages the school's curriculum. Inside the community, he is often found serving whatever city he finds himself in as an instructor, a volunteer, a dungeon monitor, medical staff, or consent incident responder. His personal kink project, Alternative Lifestyle Instructional System Topics (ALIST), is to convert kink classes into standardized lesson plans for more effective teaching.
Front Room: Mtngrrl - Clothing Optional Yoga
Join mtn grrl, a certified yoga instructor, for a slow and gentle yoga practice. While the practice will be slow and gentle, you will get a good stretch, get your breath flowing and your blood moving.
mtn girl has been teaching yoga since 1996 and has been offering clothing optional yoga classes for the kink community since 2009. Let her help you stretch your body and your mind! She believes that yoga is a practice that should be available to everyone and people of all levels of experience are welcome in her classes. Variations and modifications to the poses are available to make them accessible. If you are not able to get up and down from the floor, she also offers Chair Yoga classes.
Clothing Optional Yoga is offered at Studio Friction on Tuesday evenings at 6:00 PM. Starting on February 2nd, these classes will be offered in person AND via live stream on Zoom.
The Teal Couch: Social time hosted by Tyger
Because we can't all gather on the teal couch at this time, here is your chance to say hi, and connect with friends you have not seen for far too long. Stop in an say hi, and as always, Tyger will lead a fun convorsation.
9pm-9:50pm
The Loft: Lunatic Bound - Introduction to Sadistic Bondage
Painful bondage is easy. In this class we are going to turn things around and look at what makes bondage more comfortable. Then we are going to look at how those individual elements can be twisted and perverted to cause measured levels of pain. The goal is to create pain while making the ties sustainable and repeatable.
Prerequisites: Single column tie, basic frictions, and tension.
Lunatic Bound (he, him) has been playing, tying, and teaching for longer than he would care to admit. His personal style is eastern inspired with a torturous mash of western, and stuff he learned in the boyscouts added in. In some ways his style of rope could be referred to as a sadistic and painful hug.
Front Room: Creative Mayhem - Kink & Tech: Understanding Online Privacy
People get outed every day. Usually the consequences are minimal, but sometimes they are devastating. As the collection of personal data by companies continues to increase, protecting your information is now more important than ever. Companies have a vested interest in finding out as much as possible about you and commoditizing that information. They don’t talk a lot about what they’re doing even if you bother reading the terms of service. In this class, we will go over how people can inadvertently get “outed” in the online world and go over some basic methods to assess and protect your privacy. The goal of this class is to make you aware of how much exposure you have and to let you decide if that exposure is appropriate. Please note that Internet privacy is a vast and complex topic and we will only be able to scratch the surface.
Creative Mayhem has been practicing japanese style rope bondage since 2008, including studying in Japan. He has presented and performed internationally and currently serves on the board of Studio Friction in Denver. Some of his personal influences are Osada Steve, Barkas, and the late Yukimura Haruki. He also has over 15 years experience working in Information Technology.
The Champaign Room: Thor - Rope Bondage 101
Starting with the basics, we will learn some about safety/ rope/ vocabulary, and then some tie along foundational ties.
Thor (They/Them) Thor has been part of the Denver rope community since 2016, bottoming for Denver Bound, and going on to volunteer with Denver Rope Bite. They primarily focus on self-tying and have taught self-suspension classes at Rope in the Rockies 2018 and for Denver Rope Bite.
The Teal Couch: Social time hosted by Smitten_
Cuddle on the couch with smitten_ who could resist? We hear there may be sexy games
10pm-10:50pm
The Loft: Performance live from Studio Friction - Maxyisfast and PrimalFox
Maxyisfast has been tying for almost two years with an emphasis on self suspension. She has been involved with the Denver kink community for 6 years, and strongly values kink education. She plays in a variety of ways and loves Latex! PrimalFox (she, her, hers) primarily identifies as a submissive rope bottom. She has been in and out of the kink community for the last 7 years and active in the Denver rope community since December of 2019. PrimalFox (she, her, hers) primarily identifies as a submissive rope bottom. She has been in and out of the kink community for the last 7 years and active in the Denver rope community since December of 2019.
The Champaign Room: Shay Tiziano - Present - Mindfulness and flow for self-tying
Turning off your worries and being fully immersed in the moment can be challenging...especially now. After a brief discussion of safety for self-tying, this session will explore the concept of flow, and how to apply three key aspects of flow states to bring yourself into the present with self-bondage. Free-form spiral-style floor bondage and making self-bondage more intense (some might say "painful") will be discussed and demonstrated. This session includes optional participatory activities – if you'd like to tie along, recommended supplies are at least two full (approximately 30') lengths of rope and an appropriate cutting tool.
Shay Tiziano is a vivacious femme switch and renowned self-suspender known for their unique, dynamic performances and fun, attainable, and risk-awareness focused approach to bondage education. She is the author of Tying & Flying, the first-ever book about self-suspension. Based in San Francisco, Shay has over a decade of experience presenting across the US and internationally. In her home community during non-pandemic years, she produces over 20 events, including BENT, the Bay Area’s biggest dungeon party, Self-Suspension Open Space, and acclaimed bondage and fetish performance event Twisted Windows.
Front Room: Ms. Doctor - Bottoming Round Table: Adapting ties for success
How many times as a rope bottom have you been told you can't do something because of "X"? How many times have you been afraid to try something because of "Y"? How often have you found an old injury or a part of your anatomy makes certain ties very difficult?
Miss Doctor is facilitating a round table for rope bottoms to come together and discuss the challenges they have run into with various ties. She combines her knowledge of anatomy and physiology as well as her experiences as a rope switch to help find paths to success. Success may involve changing how a tie is constructed, adapting how one's body is placed into position for a tie, or even exploring how one could achieve bottoms' goals through similar ties.
This is a forum for bottoms to help each other - if we combine our experiences and our knowledge, we can empower each other to reach farther than we thought possible.
Miss Doctor is a kink-friendly practicing physician who works in primary care with an emphasis on musculoskeletal medicine, endocrinology, and women's health. She has been personally involved in the world of bondage for over 20 years, and she started to explore Shibari in 2013. Her experience as a rock climber, athlete, and artist provide her with a practical perspective on bottoming, rigging, and self-suspension. Her years of experience as an educator help her make safety, anatomy, and health concerns easy to understand and apply. She encourages hands-on exploration and helps students develop a more intimate understanding of themselves and their partners. She is one of the leaders of the Arizona Shibari Studio and one of the organizers of the rope convention Desert Bound.
