Creating Imbalance In Floor Play

In this shibari course, Docvale and Bänana discuss how the intentional use of imbalance in ropes can create an element of surprise and intensity.

You need to have good understanding of how to create and control balance in order to start playing with intentionally disrupting it, says Docvale (check out the ‘Creating Balance’ course as a starting point). While creating balance can refine your communication in ropes, mindfully exploring imbalance can be a playful way to create new physical and psychological challenges, even in floor play.

In the first tutorial, the pair use the example of forearm lacing to begin introducing this type of movement manipulation. This particular harness is a useful tool to begin exploring how the quality of your communication translates to ease of play. As explained by Docvale, you want to invite movement rather than force it in order to better help the person being tied relax into the ropes.

In the second tutorial, a Strappado is used to further demonstrate how creating imbalance can be an effective and highly visceral tool for more psychological rope play. During the class, Docvale offers various options for turning up the intensity by further compressing the body to make maintaining balance even trickier.

Finally, in the third tutorial, Docvale demonstrates how this type of play can be used in a cross-legged ebi position. While this position may seem highly stable, it only takes some compacting and a little manipulating the body to create total imbalance even here.

This course is suitable for all levels, although it’s recommended that you get comfortable with the ‘Creating Balance’ series first, before you begin playing with imbalance.

*Captions for this course: English