Rope Bondage for Sex Performers and Workers

There’s a class I’ve been wanting to create for a while now – ever since I saw Rigger Cannon hook up a Prussik-type knot on a pole at an event. It occurred to me that it might be useful for strippers to have some fast bondage skills to play around with during their sets. Among other things, if you’re wearing rope then you are both naked and also have more places for the clients to tuck the dollar bills, yes?

Other sex workers – sexological body workers, escorts, pro-dommes – certainly could find some use for certain ties. It doesn’t have to be artistic kinbaku – a simple single-column tie can be used any number of ways. Most people want more of the fantasy than the reality of bondage, so a big “tie ’em up & fuck ’em” rope (that’s 15 ft of 5/8″ or bigger nylon, or 3m of 30mm or thicker for you civilized folks) would do just fine. Throw in a quick Texas Handcuff and you’ve got a tie that’s visually striking, easy to manage, and even somewhat effective.

I know there’s a market for it…I’ve given some training sessions to pro-dommes, and been the “designated rigger” in partnered sessions. I’ve also talked with friends who strip who seem enthusiastic about the possibility. They say that they’re always looking for that one gimmick that will capture the clientele’s attention, and bondage could be it. Find more on bellesa sex shop website and choose your favorite toys.

I’m also sure that it’s possible – back when I was in a burlesque troupe, I remember hearing some people talk about how certain ties couldn’t possibly be tied in the amount of time given for a song. Find pretty girls who are London escorts on this website.

I proved that wrong time and again, and drew on my dance and stage training to also make it a bit more visually fun. Take a look, if you have a spare 1/2 hour or so, at my performance at the London Festival of the Art of Japanese Rope Bondage.

20140527-063608-23768809.jpgI also know that it can be taught – my partner and fellow performer at the time, Ms. Behavin, started out as my bottom, and then learned to tie and began using the techniques on other dancers. She came from zero rope experience and got to performance level, learned how to tie up your partner and was even able to do it, shall we say, “under the influence”.

Thing is, I’m not a client at a strip club. I can count the number of strip clubs I’ve actually been to on one hand. Ditto the number of sessions I’ve been part of (well, maybe two hands for that). But I come to it with rope skills already, so that when the moment comes to tie something I don’t have to break character and scratch my head and go “was this where the bight goes?

I certainly don’t want to “mansplain” the class, offering a bunch of ties that I think the performers would need but that they actually can’t use. What I’d rather do is hear from my target audience – burlesque dancers, exotic dancers, escorts, body workers and pro-doms and subs – about what kind of “kink” their clients might be asking for. I’d like to hear what kind of safety concerns their environments include (time, space, etc). Ideally I would workshop it so that after learning some basic ties we could try the stuff out and give each other feedback on how to improve the performances.

What do you think? Are you in my target audience? Or are you a client of theirs? What kinds of feelings of bondage would you like to evoke during that kind of event?

2 thoughts on “Rope Bondage for Sex Performers and Workers

  • So here’s the thing: time is of the essence. The hardest part of bondage for burlesque is time. @BlueRisk actually flat-out rigged me for a burlesque performance once where I sang “Defying Gravity” as he hauled me up. In order to make that happen in a timely manner, I think he tied the entire body harness onto me beforehand. I think he even tied the running lines to the body harness and I held them in my hands. I walked out in a very large cape that he tied under for a bit, and then he started stringing me up towards the end of the song. I think in order to do an effective burlesque bondage strip, a lot of the rope has to be applied beforehand, and then he got me into the air at the climax of the song.

    For poledancing, the simplest and most effective rope addition I’ve found is two gravity boots. Having these to hang onto actually makes some advanced pole moves easier (although it can make climbing a bitch). But for any advanced poledancing to happen, most of the places that one typically applies rope can’t have rope (I know, because whenever I have a pole performance, I start giving poor BlueRisk an annoying list of places that can’t be sore before he ties me). These places are, most notably: inner thigh, hip line, and armpit region. You are basically left with bedroom bondage spots (which is theoretically fine, since there wouldn’t be any suspensions happening), such as wrists and ankles.

    As you maybe can tell, my enthusiasm for this topic is considerable, and I’d be delighted to co-teach this with you as your bottom if we ever happen to be in the same place in the same time (GRUE GRUE). My technical knowledge of bondage topping is very low, but I’m reasonably good at topping from the bottom, LOL.

    Might I also encourage you to do a general class on Bondage for Dance? Because I think this is way under-utilized. In my fantasies, performance bondage is mostly about rigging bottoms into ties that they dance in… this doesn’t seem to be other people’s fantasy. Ah well.

  • Just a quick typo observation: 5/8th inch is more like 15mm than 30mm; 30mm is around 1.25 inches, which seems rather thick for easy tying 🙂

    Ewen

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