Rope Revue: Voxbody's Amalgamation 2 Performance

Rope Revue is our post rope event processing blog series focusing on articles about rope performances that we've attended. Our insight into the world of Shibari gives us a special lens into the performing art and this is the interpretation of our experiences, we hope you enjoy our view into this fascinating world and please do feel free to share with us what you think of our review especially if you attended the event!

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It was a cool summer night on our way into Voxbody studio, after buzzing through the front doors then entering the studio, we were welcomed by the friendly and familiar voice of our teacher Blue and Voxbody artist-in-residence guest performer Fuoco, who had come all the way down from Arizona to be with us to perform her Lyra aerial hoop performance as well as be the performing partner for dear Blue tonight. After taking off our shoes (Voxbody is a shoe-free zone) and being checked in by Gray, they happily filled Lana and my cup full of Sake and we went in to the performance area to meet with our friend 'K' to stake out our spot on the floor for the performance.

Hang Your Dirty Laundry

When we had walked into the sectioned off performance area at first I had noticed that there were plenty of clothespins clipped onto a line with quote cards hung across it. At first I thought it was just an art installation because I didn't read the sign on the table we checked in at, it took a couple visits back to fill my sake glass and Lana noticing people starting to hang their clothes up on the line that we got curious as to what the installation meant to us, that's when we finally read the sign on the table. I can't quite remember what the sign said but it had asked us to interact with the installation with the action of hanging your dirty laundry (an article of clothing of our choice) on the line and taking a quote. We thought it was a fun idea so our little party decided to interact with it, but now the question was what article of clothing do we shed?

Lana was the first to decide, I mean, it was obvious already what choice to me she would pick because she had mentioned to me earlier in the car on the way to Voxbody that she wasn't wearing any panties. So she had asked for my help to unclip her bra through her cute little black outfit she had on, this instantly made me hot so I had to take a seat and sip my sake to cool off a bit and decide if I wanted to take my button down shirt off as my clothing article, which I did.

What you seek is already within you.

You uncover it by shedding all that is untrue within you.

-Sampo Kaasila

The Performances

After the doors and partition were closed the crowd had settled down into their seats, Fuoco emerged from the partition and climbed up onto her Lyra hoop with poise and a sexy confidence, the music changed and she went straight into her set performing a series of aerial movements reminding me of freestyle calisthenics training and aerial silks. It was our actual first time seeing a Lyra performance this close doing their thing and I'm glad to have experienced the graceful, athletic and amazing performance from Fuoco. As soon as she was finished with her performance, Fuoco descended from her Lyra hoop like a goddess, pausing for a moment to take a drink with her eyes gazing at Blue with intent, she approaches the bamboo stage with the same poise she showed earlier before her Lyra set and out of nowhere she grabs Blue by the hair and playfully leads her up on stage while crawling on all fours, it was so hot! Then Fuoco slowly raised Blue's hands tying them up and bringing her into a partial then lifting her see-through top up over her face exposing Blue's body, this is when Fuoco had asked Blue in a bit of shock and disappointment why she had forgotten her socks! Luckily, Blue's good friend SatineAngelic had participated in the art installation by hanging up her socks (which was definitely unplanned)! After being gagged by Fuoco with Satine's socks, Blue is then brought up to be displayed with her legs spread open exposed in her most vulnerable position then taken through a series of transitions until she reached an inversion, this was when Fuoco brought out the clothespins to torture Blue with before transitioning Blue back down to the tatami mat on her knee's and elbows with her ass up for some spankings and an additional clothespin on her tongue before unbinding and ending an incredible performance.

Post-Processing

When the performance ended we decided to linger for a bit more to socialize and talk about the performance to figure out what everything meant to us, when we asked Blue what inspired the interactive art installation she said it all had to do with peeling away our layers and exposing our vulnerabilities which can be what rope is about, with this insight, I had connected the clothespin torture used in the rope scene as a metaphor for all the things that we do to ourselves to drive us away from being our true self and only when we take away those clothespins pinching our bodies skin will we ever truly find happiness but not without a painful experience while removing them.

This is my interpretation of the Amalgamation 2 show, art is subjective so you or others may have seen this performance much more differently than I did, if you saw the show I would love to hear what you thought about it by leaving a comment!

"Want to see my interpretation of a fly? Buzzz, buzzzz, buzzz.." - Gray (while covering they eyes with Lana's bra) -