All skill sets are welcome, to sit in, audit, learn, skill share and tie on the ground.

Not all may suspend. If we determine dynamic transitions sequences are too far outside your skill set, we will ask that you tie on the ground.

Prereqs for suspension- must be knowledgeable and experienced with:

(For everyone)

• Hardpoint and equipment evaluation and risk awareness

• Bondage risk awareness and anatomy/body mechanics in rope suspension

• Multiple transitions in suspension including upright and inverted

• Multiple sustainable upper body harnesses for suspension

• Following instructions and asking for help while suspending, both from instructors and partners

(If tying)

• Managing and handling multiple uplines in suspension

• Secure, fast lockoffs for suspension

• Rope and body handling on the ground and in the air

• Tying and loading non-collapsing suspendable single columns and harnesses quickly and securely with consistent and accurate tension and placement

• Making all adaptations required for your tying partner

(If being tied)

• Tying at least one form of non-collapsing single column tie

• Sustaining and communicating effectively through extended inversions and backbends with your partner

• Communicating adaptations and adjustments for your body in suspension

• Sustaining single point suspension from a front-loaded hip harness or waist rope with your tying partner

Recommended/Will benefit from (all):

• Experience safely using or adapting Tenshi in suspension transitions

• Experience safely using or adapting gote/box ties through suspension transitions

• Experience safely inverting from ankle or foot ties

• Having many variations of upper body, hip, and lower body harnesses in your toolbox and knowledge of their comparative strengths and weaknesses in different applications with your tying partner

• Experience navigating both dynamic and static transition sequences

• Experience learning with your tying partner

• Ego management

Oblige provides floor chairs, cushions, exercise mats, cleaning supplies and Bamboo for all tying stations.

Required Materials:
-Your favorite swivel and rigging plate, ring, and/or carabiner system with a 36” or longer strap.

-Standard suspension rope kit, ideally with POSH or Hempex for uplines and natural fiber ropes for body ties. Slippery synthetics will be more challenging to work with, and jute uplines will increase upline failure risk

-Water bottles, notepads/pencils, blankets, meds, snacks, or anything else you or your partner need

-It is possible but challenging to suspend our custom leg ties successfully with nylon rope and/or slippery leggings, however it may take more time and practice to achieve that. Easiest will be natural fiber rope against bare skin for less hairy legs and non-slippery pants or high socks for more hairy legs

- Flirting with Danger: Danger is sexy. Except when it isn’t.

- Deconstructing Danger: (Probability of Failure)x(Cost of Failure), vs. perceived danger or “thrill”

Take our dynamic safety model for a flight test in our crowd favorite suspension risk management crash course, “Houston, We Have a Problem: Handling Turbulence in Suspension.” After learning how we ideate about danger, proactively and reactively identify, and solve a diversity of problems in the air, you will have the opportunity to practice in a dynamic problem-solving exercise based on a Yoko Tsuri transition sequence. Loved equally by suspension-ready intermediate flight cadets and seasoned experts alike, this hands-on partnered workshop will help you maximize air time, optimize crisis management, and minimize probability and costs of unwanted risks, building trust and living to tie again another day. Learn our TK secret sauce and expand your rolodex of TK tips, tricks, and adaptations, or sub in your preferred side suspension upper body harness!

The following pre-reqs and required materials are for anyone who would like to tie along with suspension, and are not required to observe or participate in discussion.

Intensive Highlights

Danger is the stuff of action movies and romance novels. Danger is also a palpable presence in BDSM and rope suspension, whether explicit or implicit. Here, we give you the tools to navigate and play with danger in a consent-informed and thoughtful way. By directly confronting the danger inherent in rope suspension, we show how this allows you to break free from stale shibari tropes and develop your own unique collaborative style. Throughout the weekend, we provide an example of one such style, co-developed by our mutual interests and preferences, steeped in traditional elements and blended with modern tying innovations to create dynamic and exciting tying experiences.

Contents include:

Our appetite to experience danger but also to manage that danger has led to the development of a number of unique ties: our Thighbinder, Thigh High, and Zero-Gravity Slipper. These ties are not merely about the color-by-numbers pattern. Instead, they are taught from the context of having been rigorously tested in a rich diversity of situations, materials, and bodies. These ties are demonstrated in context with extant alternatives so attendees can evaluate best cases for each. 

We then put these ties to work in custom transition sequences for which they are best suited. Two of our most iconic signature dynamic suspension transition sequences feature transitions for stunning drops to flip, roll, twist, swing, and spin safely in style, with body mechanics and adaptations for high-impact top and bottom-led transitions.

Our teaching style heavily emphasizes technical skills on all sides of rope, and key soft skills. Within these technical skills we further focus on elements that we feel are missing in the wider rope education curriculum and on adaptations for diverse bodies. As for soft skills, we share our own but we largely focus on interactions and leave the interpretation of “connection” for the attendees. Finally, we teach skills that will allow you to escape the trap of technical perfection and the endless labbing it promotes. 

- Single-point-suspendable harnesses and how we customize to allow body articulation

- Streamlining uplines for movement

- Ring/plate, carabiner & swivel optimization

- Rigging and body mechanics: cartwheels, flips, barrel rolls, contraction, expansion, drops etc.

- Learn how we ideate about danger and our framework for dynamic rope safety.

- Learn our TK secret sauce and expand your rolodex of TK adaptations.

- Learn exercises to proactively and reactively identify and solve problems in the air, maximize air time, optimize crisis management, and minimize probability and costs of unwanted risks, building trust and living to tie again another day.

- Learn how to tie our custom Thigh High tie, to be used in the coming sequence.

- Learn how to get into that Nakoff high kick with the Thigh High.

- Breaking with tradition: learn how to break out of Kata Ashi and transpose to dancer, with the optional opportunity to explore dancing in the air.

- Learn our Gyaku Ebi swing drop. 

- Learn our barrel roll swing drop

- Learn multiple descent options

- Learn our secret sauce for ankle and foot suspension

- Learn our Zero Gravity Slipper tie

- Set yourself up for success with our collaborative negotiation framework for custom rope styles, mapping intentions to interactions to fuel your specific partnerships and goals.

- Learn an interaction-focused warm-up tie we use regularly to check in.

- Practice greeting tie exercises to get your partner moving and engaged.

- Learn how to tie our custom Suspendable Thighbinders, to be used in the coming sequence.

- Learn and compare strengths/trade-offs between our Thighbinders and ties that precede them.

- Learn and adapt our favorite slow-mo rope backflip routine using Tifereth's Tenshi and our Thighbinder.

- Work through the first half of the routine, getting the waisty inversions out of the way before lunch.

- See how we finish the sequence to show off our unique style in performance.

- Learn options and considerations for breaking and combining harnesses to play to your strengths.

- Discover how to make the sequence your own starting from the sequence's midpoint Thighbinder inversion

- Collaborate and try out your ideas with guided lab time to complete the sequence

- If you and your partner are up for more, learn how to riff from here with some “around the world” traveling transitions, cooperating with your neighbors to share hardpoints without unwanted collisions.

- Enjoy the circus whenever you're ready to tap out.