Bound to Rise: Intermediates Class

Bound to Rise: Intermediates Class

"Wringing Out the Last Drop"

Sunday, May 24th | 6-9PM

@ Alchemy House, Oakland

$45 single / $90 couple

Taught by Gina and Ben

Hosted by glory

After 2.5 years of Bound to Rise beginner-friendly rope workshops, we are launching a new collaboration with world-class instructors Gina and Ben to bring a deeper level of practice to this community.

B2R: Intermediates is a class focusing on rope technique, body awareness, and applications of rope designed for those looking to deepen in their rope practice in a community setting. We aim to offer a balanced mix of technical information, heart-body connection, and sensual-kinky avenues for play.

The event follows a soft format of a 2-hr class followed by a 1-hr jam, beginning with a connection exercise or embodiment warm-up leading into educational material and practice. Afterward, there will be time for a tea break and open jam time to practice what you learned and get mentorship from the teachers. We will close together as a group! ☺️

As with any Bound to Rise event, this series emphasizes presence, connection, and community. You can expect time to drop in to your body as well as space to connect with your fellow humans and share your discoveries as we go deeper together.

You are strongly encouraged to come with a tying partner to go deeper in practice. Class material is generally designed for partner tying, although those attending solo can find it useful and informative simply to observe the class.

This is not a beginner-friendly class. Each class has unique pre-requisites. Before registration, please confirm that you confidently have these skills under your belt, or can acquire these skills by the time class begins.

🪢 Workshop: Wringing Out the Last Drop

Gina and Ben are thrilled to offer Bound to Rise’s first intermediate lesson! In this class, we’ll “wring out the last drop” by locking the body against itself, finding end ranges of motion, and adding layers of intensity until we hit that sweet spot where we feel like we’ve gotten every last bit of juice out of the tie. This approach to floor tying is so deliciously connective, requiring you to be highly attuned to yourselves and each other.

This class will cover two different body-locked upper body ties, improvisation with the rest of the body, and some spicy add-ons to help you find exactly the right amount of intensity together. We’ll share safety and communication strategies along the way so you can confidently keep yourselves and each other safe while exploring more intense floor tying.

You don’t need to enjoy pain or extreme discomfort to take this class! Wringing out the last drop doesn’t mean producing maximum intensity, it means finding the right amount of intensity, and the right way to layer what the person in rope is experiencing so that everyone is enjoying the scene.

You can attend this class with someone you are newer to tying with as long as you feel confident in your abilities to communicate and calibrate together. Those who are more familiar with each other may find they’re able to go quite deep. In this class, you will not rotate tying partners, but there will be opportunities for group connection and interaction with other students to support Bound to Rise community building.

You will need 2-4 pieces of rope that are standard length (8-10m or ~25-30 feet long).

📋 Prerequisites

🪢 For those tying:

◦ Any non-collapsing single column tie (Somerville bowline, square knot, etc.)

◦ In-line single column tie, aka hojo cuff

◦ Reverse tension

◦ Any basic friction like an X-friction, L-friction, half moon friction, which will lock off a set of wraps around the body

◦ You should have basic awareness of the physical risks of more intense floor ties for the bottom (nerve damage, joint injury, soft tissue injury, etc.) and the ability and willingness to listen to and respond in real time to feedback and communication from the person you are tying.

🐰 For those being tied:

◦ You should have previous experience being tied.

◦ You should have basic awareness of the physical risks of being in more intense floor ties (nerve damage, joint injury, soft tissue injury, etc.).

◦ You should be able to communicate in real time how a tie is working for you, whether the body position is ok for you, any adjustments needed, and whether you feel you are approaching injury or are actively sustaining an injury.

◦ We will go over risks and communication tools to help mitigate them in class, but this is not the right class for you to be in rope for the first time, or the first few times.

🤌 What you’ll learn

• A harness that brings the arms upward behind the head (bunny ears position) that is adaptable for most bodies

• An arms in front harness that utilizes body locking principles

• Intermediate body-locking concepts

• Ways to think about improvisation and choice-making when creating intense floor ties

• Elements that can be added on to layer intensity (ie mouth rope, tight rope around the waist, etc.)

• Communication tools to support finding the “goldilocks zone” for more intense floor ties

🎟️ Ticket pricing

$45 single / $90 couple

If you are in significant financial need and attending this event would be of high value for you, please reach out via email @ santacruzropecollective@gmail.com to let us know your situation. We will do our best to make accommodations.

Location is sent via email ~3 days before the event. Tickets close ~5 hours before the event.

If you are coming with a friend/partner/date, please have them fill out this form too.

💙 Community Guidelines 💙

We are invested in creating a community where growth and experimentation are supported by safety and consent. To that end, we invite all participants to create a shared culture based on our community guidelines:

🐛This is a place of practice. Come and learn new skills, meet people, and share what you can. We hope to cultivate a community centered around practicing rope in a safe and supportive container.

🐒Take really good care of yourself. Giving or receiving "no" can be a challenge in our wider culture. Let's use this as a space to practice being honest about what we want, what we don't want, and what we're not sure about. Having boundaries is how we can be in good relationship with one another.

🐝 Let's take care of one another. By practicing together, in community, we can be a source of support for people around us, and receive support from them as well. We're not strangers here, or at least not for long. The rope community is small. Say hi.

🌱 Play within your skill level. There's a wide range of what's possible with rope. It takes training—more than you might initially think—to build awareness of all the possible risks. Aim to play within your risk tolerance. Be safe and take it slow.

🐙We all make mistakes. If you experienced a boundary violation, a consent oopsie, or anything that just made you feel a bit uncomfortable for any reason, please let us know. Seriously—no matter how small or big! Having that information helps us understand what's happening in the space, recognize where we as a community could use more awareness, and help individuals understand their impact and potentially change their behavior for the better.

Feedback form: https://forms.gle/2NQmTkNjsHVjhHfx9

Refund Policy

If you might not be able to make it, please reach out and let us know what’s going on as early as possible and we’ll see what we can do. If you can’t come, email us to transfer your ticket to a friend. No refunds unless someone from the waitlist takes your spot.

General refunds are only acceptable in the case of sickness of emergency.

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