Workshop: Semenawa, the basics

Organizer: JacL & Nadie

This is a workshop about rope that hurts. Instruction with simple ties, focusing on what happens when you tighten just a little more. You do not need prior rope experience, but you do need a desire to experiment with pain, both as a rigger and a model.

About the session

Semenawa (責め縄) roughly translates to "torture rope". It is a style where the rope is meant to be challenging, and where discomfort, endurance, and intensity are part of the experience. Pressure, tension, and time do the work, and physical reactions are the whole point. This workshop is about pain. We will not cover predicaments or positions that become difficult over time, but will focus on what is direct: how the rope is placed, tightened, and used to cause pain in a way that both partners desire. We work with techniques for calibrating intensity, which body parts can handle what, how much force is needed, the difference between pain that builds up and pain that shuts you down, as well as how to read your partner when they can no longer speak as much. The ties are simple. You do not need any prior knowledge, nor do you need experience handling rope. We show everything from scratch, and what you learn can be applied directly at home. However, both of you need to want this. As a rigger, you should have a sadistic curiosity—a desire to see what happens when you tighten just a little more. As a model, you should have a masochistic inclination and enjoy being challenged and receiving pain. If you attend without this mindset, the experience will likely feel uncomfortable for both of you, rather than feeling close, intimate, and beautifully vulnerable. Be aware that semenawa often brings up emotions. Some participants cry, some find a headspace they cannot reach any other way, and others realize that it simply hurts, which is also a valid response. Hopefully, you will learn something about yourselves and your relationship to giving and receiving consensual pain, in addition to the techniques and tricks you will get to see and try out. Are you curious to try, or are you already familiar with it? Sign up. We hope to see you there.

Practical information

• —You register together with your rope partner. We do not pair participants up for this workshop, as this requires that you already have a foundation established between you.
• —Bring 2–3 ropes of approximately 8 meters (preferably jute or hemp; synthetic ropes are not allowed), safety shears or a seatbelt cutter, and comfortable clothes that allow movement and can get wrinkled.
• —If you do not have rope or safety shears, these are available to purchase in the studio shop.
• —The cafe is open during the break. Coffee and snacks are paid for by Swish or card and must remain in the cafe to avoid stains on the mats in the rope rooms.
• —Please bring your own water bottle, as only water in sealed containers is permitted in the rope rooms. Water bottles are also available to purchase in the studio shop.
• —As the receiving partner, you should expect visible marks. Rope marks and bruises are common, especially on the legs and feet.
• —Agree on both verbal safewords (e.g. yellow, red, and blue) and a non-verbal safeword (e.g. dropping a set of keys on the floor so they jingle) before you begin, and test that it works. This is because the model may need to pause or stop without speaking.

Rules

• —Everyone follows the Code of Conduct at Nawa Studio.
• —You only tie with each other. No switching partners during the day.
• —No suspension or semi-suspension at this workshop, even if you have prior experience.
• —No intentional targeting of nerve pathways. The pain we work with is directed at muscles, skin, and breathing, not nerves.
• —Tell us immediately if something feels wrong, for you or for anyone else in the room. We are there the whole time.