This is our report from Moscow Knot 2013, the first edition of what has been probably one of the greatest rope event of this year, featuring on stage some incredible artists including Naka Akira for the first time performing out of Japan.
We really don’t know where to start from to describe all the emotions of this incredible long weekend.
The Moscow Knot was organized by Vlada, Falco and Torquemada. Three splendid and friendly guys that took very good care of all the guests during the three days of the Festival.

We arrived quite late in the night before the beginning of the Festival and slept only few hours, and when we went for breakfast.. our first shocking surprise was finding Naka Akira and Iroha Shizuki there together with some of our best friends.
Well, let us underline that Naka San had been a very important turning point for our interpretation of Kinbaku. Through his videos we really drastically changed our way to see, to feel, to live the ropes. So it was a very big emotion getting to know him and his wonderful model Iroha.
At breakfast we also met all our friends Wykd Dave, Clover, Jack Whipper, Zahara, Nawakiri Shin, Nancy Wang so a very nice friendly atmosphere was immediately created, we felt like children in a school trip!

The three days schedule saw everyday some workshops in late morning and afternoon, and then the night shows starting approximately at 6.30 pm that took all the evening. The venue was a big Moscow club, the Monaclub, that was suitably rearranged to host all the activities.

Dmitry Torquemada was a big friend and “guardian angel” for all of us, he took good care, provided everything we needed, smiled, and offered some Vodka .

The first day we attended Jack Whipper and Zahara workshop on The Moment of Intention, a very good practical lesson that gave some very interesting inputs on the value of controlling from the very beginning, even with the shortest piece of rope you could ever imagine.
We joined Wykd Dave and Clover workshop on Ichinawa too, that we already had the chance to live in the past, but you never have enough of experimenting how breathing together can be a crucial starting point to share before ropes.

Friday night started already with some great performers. Shin went on stage first and left everybody breathless with a great show made of theater and good ropes. His energy is amazing and he is able to mix humor, drama, flow and good rope all in one show.
Than it was our turn. We were freaking out literally, as we thought we were going to perform in front of our idol Naka San, not to say we are clearly feeding on his style lately. We did a show in a very slow pace, concentrating on rope and feelings. Only two suspensions, a split and the one with a leg up high that we love so much lately (that Naka San also performed on his second show). Despite the tension we did well and we received so many compliments including the ones of Naka san himself that appreciated very much our approach to rope. Video of first show can be watched here.

Night went on with performances by Tougo and Tetsubishi that showed some very interesting stuff. Wykd Dave and Clover went on stage around 22h and needless to say they did an incredible show as usual. Flow, connection, good rope torture, genuine feelings. They are one of our favorite bondage couples and they are always a great inspiration.

Medved, Yeger and Inkognito closed the night, showing that the level of Russian riggers is increasing very fast. The night ended with some free rope play in the workshop area, where Wildties had the chance to tie some beautiful Russian girls. Seems Kinbaku LuXuria new style has more and more appeal on young ladies…

The second day started in the early afternoon with Naka Akira workshop.
It was Naka San’s first workshop ever with a “big” audience and the class was lead through demonstrations and very practical suggestions. It was a Master-class intense like a show, because he showed the “backstage” of some of his most famous ties and suspensions, with very few explanations like in the typical Japanese way of teaching, a joy for the heart and for the eyes. Who wanted to learn knots, reasons for doing this or that, rope placements, was deceived. If we had to say the most precious teaching we had in this workshop we would indeed say: deepness.

Saturday night featured Wykd Dave and Clover again on the stage, in a very intense show that as usual gave us shivers. We now have seen Dave and Clover so many times performing, but it’s always a new incredible emotion. The performance was based on stressful positions and transitions, always so beautiful to see them together sharing that intensity.
Then it was Xanoo, in a simple yet beautiful transition show.

The show from Naka Akira and Iroha Shizuki was a stunning, not easily forgettable experience for our minds and our hearts. Naka San started tying on the floor, creating a strong connection with the model, and used so well timimg. He tied her, and then he looked at her beauty in sufferance. He brought on stage his most famous suspension, very challenging for the model and aesthetically so impactful! And useless to say.. that Iroha expressions, drooling in pain were hot and amazing. One suspension, no transitions, no fancy hand movements, no theatrical rope handling… still, this was the best Kinbaku show of our lives. Seeing him live definitively convinced us that we made a good choice in trying to follow his steps in this very traditional style of tying.

Then it was our turn, and you can only imagine how scared we were, having to go on stage right after one the greatest Masters! We were asking ourselves how could we possibly convey something to the public after what they just had seen. Even more freaking, was that we wanted to show our interpretation of another of Naka San’s classics, the leg lacing. We stepped on stage and were very nervous, but breathing together while tying the TK, (as Dave taught us), helped us relaxing and connecting. The show went smooth and we forgot totally about the audience and had fun together. You can watch the full video here.

Even this time, the warm compliments of the Master and his appreciation for our style, that, though clearly inspired to his work, has its own personality, filled our hearts with joy and made us feel very satisfied with what we did. And guess what… Naka San gave us two beautiful presents, a tenugui and a fundoshi!!

We had the chance to enjoy the show by Boris Mosafir, who is progressing incredibly fast and who is one of the best riggers in Russia at the moment.
Stefano Laforgia from Italy did a good show with the beautiful Ishemia, quite sadistic as usual for him.

Then it was time for the first international show from Jack Whipper and Zahara, they very well welcomed from Russian audience. Their style is unique, a lot of takedown, and sensual tension between them! They offered a show focused on moments, on tying what the body asks at that time, with sense of humor, dynamism and unexpected details. We love this couple so much that we decided to do an event in Rome with them. Date is 13th July 2013, and soon on this blog all the details. In the meanwhile, you can check the event pages on Facebook and Fetlife.

Vlada and Falco to close the second night, with one of their famous sadistic and shocking performances, always so creative and extreme on the stage. Vlada can really do everything to that guy, so beautiful in ropes and incredibly able to manage pain! He’s flexible like a mutant, and resistant as an android.

At the end of the evening we had the opportunity to have some extended time on hair tying and vertical pole tying with Naka Akira and Iroha Shizuki: Naka San thought that the afternoon workshop was too short so he wanted to spend some time more together with his students. We were evidently not tired enough so we tried immediately what Naka San showed us on the vertical pole (one very famous suspension you can appreciate in his videos), and a new Takate Kote hands positioning that he had showed before, underlining the importance of crossing hands high in the back (real Takate Kote rather than Gote) leaving hands visible so that you can appreciate the feelings that they express, and they can “talk” to the Rigger.
Naka San was so pleased with the results that he even took pictures, and he was sharing them on Facebook few days later.
Redsabbath was spacing and enjoying so much that she managed a very stressful position and not yet tired, she was tied again to a chair. At that time Naka San approached asking Wildties if he could show him something. Of course Wildties was super happy to be corrected from Naka San, and was expecting some great revelation on technique, but Naka San actually showed him how to make a crotch rope vibrate in a very sensual way. Too bad for Redsabbath she was blindfolded and could not appreciate the fact that it was the Master himself moving her crotch rope.

On third day, we run a workshop on Semenawa in the early afternoon, with a nice class of 5 couples plus all of our friends. Workshop focused on the importance of timing in Semenawa, on how to read the body in order to tie what the model needs rather than what the Rigger wants, and how to create beautiful slow suffering rather than pain. In rope shows nowadays we see more beautiful spacing or simple rope pain, while Japanese bondage should create beautiful suffering as Naka San demonstrated in his two shows.

Three Russian riggers to open the last night (Lisitsyn, Carol and Zenj), each with their own interesting personal style

The second performance from Naka Akira and Iroha Shizuki was again a traditional one, based on few passages kept for a long time, effective lines, and showing the progressive adaptation of the body to discomfort and eroticization of pain. If we try to describe the feeling we had about the show, we’ll end with repeating the words we already spent about the first show. What is sure, is that once again we realized we have to rethink all our bondage.

A number of other performance were held, all of them high quality, including the ones of Mosafir, Stefano Laforgia, Vlada and Falco, Exmelin, Yeger and Xanoo.

Shin and Nancy went on stage with a new show, a very poetic story realized with creativity and incredible stamina. They are not only Kinbaku performers, they are really accomplices and they can create a piece of theatre every time they go on stage!
Despite being very late, and having the last show, Jack and Zahara offered one of the most beautiful shows we’ve ever seen. It was a very hot, intimate show, we felt like watching from the keyhole a loving couple making love through ropes. Jack has the ability to control perfectly Zahara, and she dances like nobody in his ropes.

In the after party, Wildties had a queue of girls that wanted to be tied. It is probably because of our rough but sensual and sexual style, that our Bondage has such a strong appeal on women. Poor Wildties tied so much that we had blues all over his fingers that night. It’s a hard job but somebody has to do it!

At four in the morning, Vlada, Falco, Torquemada and his beautiful girlfriend Olga brought us for a short tour in Moscow by night… It was wonderful to visit the Red Square and some breathtaking views of the city all together.
These memories will stay forever in our hearts.
It was a great experience, performing, learning, exchanging, and having the great chance to live all this with a group of friends that share our same passion about Kinbaku, and can rejoice in each other's successes without jealousy but in a spirit of growth and true reciprocal exchange.

Other reports, pictures and videos from Moscow Knot can be seen on Rope-topia.com and Jackandzahara.co.uk. Below, you can read a kind contribution from Shin, it is the English version of a piece he wrote for the Taiwanese community.

"How little I knew about shibari."
So I said to myself when I listened to Hedwig's course last year in London. So I said to myself again this year. Every time I meet my European friends, I am saddened by realising how little I knew, but also thrilled by how much there is to learn.
Moscow Knot: International Bondage Party is organised by Vlada, Falco, and Torquemada. A tree-day festival with 8 pairs of local performers and 8 pairs of foreign performers, workshop, interview, and party, is a huge event, especially for a team who organises an international event for the first time.
The spotlight of the event is undoubtedly on Naka Akira. Under influence of Nureki Chimuo, he practices, in my opinion, one of the older style of shibari. He uses no carabiners, and instead spontaneously ties attachment points on a bamboo pole. He does not connect ropes, but always start from a new point after finishing using one rope. But how do we learn to understand and appreciate such a style?
The seme-nawa course offered by Riccardo Wildties, a big fan of Naka-san, turned out to be a fitting introduction — the choices of not using certain techniques are in fact closely tied with the aesthetics of Naka-style. Tying to a bamboo allows for flexibility, while not connecting ropes allows the model, the rigger, and the audience, to pause between breaks.
Naka-san's performances are usually slow but intense. He would completely apply one rope to the model's body, step back, observe the model in agony, before applying the next rope to push her a bit further. In my opinion, it is like a spanking session that starts in a slow pace and gradually intensifies to stimulate endorphin — it turn out that ropes and whips do share something in common. Aren't we used to say when we teach spanking that there is not one but many kinds of "pain"? In the course, Riccardo pinched Redsabbath out of blue and made her shouted "ouch!" she shouted. he commented: "It hurts, but it's not beautiful. What we want is 'beautiful suffering.'" He then started tying Redsabbath, one ope after another, as we watch her gradually bloomed like a flower. "Now, this is beautiful." Riccardo said.
That's the moment when I again said to myself: how little did I know about shibari.
Naka-san's performance appears to be technically as simple as a performance can be. Yet it is so touching that the audience could not help sobbing. Dave was very moved by the performance. "How much confidence does it take to do something so simple, and yet so beautiful? If I keep tying for ten more years, no, if I can still tie after ten years, can I tie so well?"
That night Dave talked to me a lot. From shibari, to art, and to life. Then he paused, "I'm sorry. I am talking too much."
Months ago Stefano made the same apology to me after talking about ropes. I saw the same thing in their eyes: the kind of passion in the eyes of those who talking about something they deeply love. My response was the same: I thanked them, for teaching me so much.
Each time I talked to Dave, I feel enlightened. And each time I saw Jack and Zahara on stage, I feel joy. Since the first time I saw them on stage, they have always surprised me with different ways they can perform, yet show the same love and intimacy. With their permission, I taped their last performance in Moscow Knot to bring back to Taiwan, which can be very good tutorial.
I am happy among these friends, who share the same love and passion. How lucky I am to be with these wonderful people."