Welp, it’s taken me over a month to sit down and write about this years Nuit des Cordes (NdC). It has mostly been because of my new job, which is as taxing as it is fulfilling, resulting in my spiral into debauchery every night after work.
All those excuses aside, here I am!
So this was my third NdC, and as always I was honored to be permitted to participate again, it’s always a great trip and seeing some of the friends that I have in Montreal is always joyous.
This year I was scheduled to work with CutieTie and Misticwonder:
9:45pm with CutieTie
11:15pm with CutieTie
1:45am with Misticwonder
However Misticwonder wasn’t feeling well and had to back out, so I performed thrice with CutieTie.
Our first session was involving a bamboo hard point, something that I hadn’t really used before and quit enjoyed. For this session we stuck mostly to partial suspensions, but went through some of my favorite ones. The audience seemed t quite like it, and the photographers were all over us (most of our photos of the night ere from that session).
This session also started off with one of my favorite songs to tie too, so that gave the whole thing a bit more bravado.
Our second session involved more partial suspensions and a lovely inversion.
At the same time, there was someone next to us that was fully inverted and playing the violin!
By our third performance, we were starting to get burnt out and I was becoming reluctant to do anything redundant, as such my creativity started to dwindle by then.
Finally, we concluded the night by watching the remaining performances, which is always lovely. Sadly this is the last NdC as the hosts announced that they will be retiring from running this annual event. We lsot the Morpheus Bondage Extravaganza last year as well, so here’s to hoping that some awesome folks with rise up and host more of these exhibitions!
It is also a point of interest that this night on March 3rd, 2016, Yukimura Haruki a well known rope artist, known for his seemingly simple yet profound caressing style (aibunawa; 愛撫縄), had passed away. As such, the majority of my effort this night were an expression of my understanding and grasp of Yukimura’s style of bondage (though I know exceedingly little about it).
Sidenote
A complete side note, there were a group of people who attempted to hinder and put a stop to the event for various reasons.
One reason was that they were grossly underestimating the cost of running an event like this and was accusing the event hosts of running a cash-grab. Besides the fact that their math was sourly wanting, in my eyes, it doesn’t matter to me if they are getting rich off of this (which I very seriously doubt they were), the fee to perform at this exhibition (yes, most exhibitions have a fee to participate in) seemed quite reasonable to me (if I recall it was $40), and the event has always been quite enjoyable, so I hope the hosts got something out of it.
The other reasons that there was a kerfuffle about this event is because the primary host has a number of consent violation allegations against him, and sadly, nowadays this doesn’t seem to surprise people any more. I can certainly not confirm nor deny these allegations, and frankly I don’t really know the host much at all.
One of the statements that stood out to me regarding this is as follows:
“In my little kitteh opinion, by showing up, you are literally explicitly indicating you support this man and his alleged abuse.”
There’s a few points that make me raise a brow here. Fortunately, it is only an opinion after all, as is my own viewpoint on the matter. I can very comfortably state that I didn’t participate in this event to support anyone or anything; I went for my own selfish interest of having fun. As such, my participation does not either literally or explicitly indicate my support for this man, the allegations leveled against him, or the crimes (because that is what they would be) he supposedly commited.
I in no way endorse the misdeeds and atrocious behaviour of too many men in this world (frankly, I struggle with a sex and gender identity over this as I find too many men’s behaviour to be obscene and repulsive and commonly I want no part of that side of our species).
So for someone to equate my enjoyment of an art and practice that I love to the behaviour of the repungent and abhorrent side of the near sighted, self-centered, and in some cases malicious individuals that would impose themselves on others, is poorly thought out, and subject to a number of logical fallacies.
/EndRant&Reflection
Shibari Dojo 