"without the gote" day 1

i'm finally getting back to rewriting my notes from this workshop. (i have a system for notetaking workshops that i'll share for ya'll sometime if you'd like). honestly, this workshop was fun as hell. we did four exercises each day, each varying in intensity and complexity and playfulness, none of which involved tk. at a space where tk is at the core of their curriculum, this content was edgy for a lot of the students in the room. they see the tk as a reliable structure-- a (well tied) tk turns the upper torso and arms and shoulders into singular structure that you can move and manipulate as one. to be very used to tying with tk and then suddenly do a workshop without it at all, the exercises felt somewhat freeform and unpredictable. as someone who loves tk but ties a lot of not-tk, this way of tying, to my surprise, felt natural to me.

exercise one: the "anti-gote". practically, i'm not sure how much i will use this one in my regular practice. the rope on the arms was a LOT and very finicky. i have yet to try it again, but would like to with thinner and shorter rope, in the hopes that it would work better for kitten by taking up less space on her arms. it seems to me like there's not really anywhere to go from here, and the leg cuffs were quite challenging to tie in the air. i would like to try again as a partial.

exercise two: "the dirty one". my personal favorite from the weekend. i LOVE the bamboo wrist situatio. it looks so pretty, but also keeps a simple wrist cuff from cinching onto the wrist bones when she puts her weight into it. ah! the rest is simple and playful and sexy. i love this as a session opener.

exercise three: "the romantic one" apparently named so because it was similar to fede and marta's first tie together. my conclusion: i want to work more on the upper body harness for slightly more structure and sustainability, but i loved the sequence as a whole. especially the "falling" of the first shape. i hadn't really thought to close the legs in a calf bind over a half basket before, and it made for some interesting transition possibilities.

exercise four: "the predicament". deceptively evil-- i got some tears out of kitten in this one. this as a still photo and not a video truly doesn't do it justice. you can't tell from the photo, but her wrists are trapped behind an upline from the back of a mermaid, making the whole thing very "wobbly". this may be my most used exercise after this weekend.