Our Shibari Classes are Changing!
We are excited to announce that we are changing the way we structure our shibari courses at Daruma from November onwards!
November 1st marks one year since we moved into this space and we’re really happy with how well our classes have been visited, and the feedback we’ve gotten from all of you—but our format so far has very much been trial and error process, and we have definitely found places we can improve on what we’ve been doing.
In particular, we believe that Berlin is missing high-quality, regular classes that build on participants' knowledge systematically and prioritise both physical/technical and emotional safety in a non-dogmatic way—and we have also come to accept (albeit a little reluctantly, as we know a lot of you love them) that drop in classes are really not the best way to go about providing this.*
Therefore, we’ve restructured our regular weekly classes so that students have a straightforward, and (relatively) linear way of learning rope bondage from absolute beginner level, through to the basics of suspension. The goal of this is to make sure that students have a solid foundation from which to progress into intermediate and advanced level workshops, and to experiment safely.
We are also happy to say that we have invited a new team of teachers to start teaching regularly at Daruma. These are people we have chosen not only because we know that they have solid technical rope skills, but also because they all have a genuine passion for rope as a craft; for continually working to improve their tying abilities not only out of a desire to improve the experience and safety of the people they are tying, but also purely for the enjoyment of the process. We also think that they’re people who will be able to communicate that with their students, because we want you to love rope as much as we do. You can read about each of our teachers here.
*We know that sometimes attending 6 weeks in a row can be difficult—but if you do need to miss a week, please let us know. We will let you drop into the class you missed the next time around at no extra cost.
The Details
Our basic program now has 3 steps which run in 6 week blocks on Monday and Tuesday evenings, so that the same group of students stay together for the entire course, helping you to build connections with each other as you progress together. You can take the step 1 and 2 courses once, or repeat them if you don’t feel ready to move on yet. Although the basic skills that you learn are always the same in these courses, if you do choose to repeat them it will very likely be with a different teacher the next time around, giving you a slightly different perspective or flavour to the content.
The step 3 course covers the basics of suspension. Led alternately by Gestalta & Ztella, we strongly recommend that you take this course twice (once with each teacher) as not only does the content vary significantly between the two courses, but we also know from observation that 6 weeks is too short an amount of time to go from having never used a suspension line before, to being confident enough with suspension to safely progress onto intermediate level. It does not matter which of the courses you take first.
Once these basic skills are mastered, progression with rope becomes a bit less linear; we will run a variety of classes on Wednesday evenings for intermediate level and above—Gestalta’s study group will continue in something very similar to its current format, but there will also be study groups led by other teachers, and (by popular demand) we will also hold more of our regular, tutor-lead open practice sessions!
In addition, we will continue to offer a range of exciting weekend workshops from both regular and visiting teachers. One huge goal that we have for the future is to invite guest presenters to bring their best possible workshops, and to know that Berlin finally has enough students whose skills are advanced enough to take those workshops.
The Practicalities
If you are currently attending our classes and have 5 / 10 class passes which you would like to transfer to the new classes, please send an email telling us:
The email address you used to sign up.
The class you are currently attending.
The course you would like to attend, the start date of that course, and the ticket type you wish to book.
If we have a pre-existing arrangement with you to exchange volunteer work for discounted classes, please also mention this in the email.
We will create a ticket for you with whatever is left on your class pass discounted from it, and you can pay the remainder via bank transfer.
Please send us this email by 15th December 2024.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
With Love,
The Daruma Team
