What’s WykD & Wild?

This last weekend we had the great pleasure to teach in Turin, Italy with our very good friends Riccardo Wildties and Red Sabbath.

The title of the workshop either… WykD & Wild or Wild and WykD.

Two days in a beautiful studio in Turin where we taught and performed. There were three shows on the Saturday night (right), and two days where we looked at our styles of bondage, their similarities and differences. There were more of both than I think we guessed.

Day 1

On the first day we concentrated on technique.

This wasn’t an exposition of all our techniques but key points of our philosophy in technique and our approaches as riggers and teachers. We discussed a lot of the why of our teaching and methods and the reasons for the things we focus on.

This was a really interesting day for us and the students with lots of practical exercises which I think it’s fair to say gave some challenges to the students. It’s really positive to see a student willing to be challenged and to take on a that challenge to improve. We saw some real improvement and understanding during the day which is always good to see.

And no, I’m not going to tell you the exercises. That stays in the workshops. If you want to know what we teach then you can book us or Riccardo for a lesson or workshop (links at the bottom). 😉

The day finished with the performances, more about them to the right.

Day 2

This day began with the students impressions of our performances the previous night and their thoughts on the contrasts and similarities in our styles of bondage and performance.

This was based on a single experience of us and Riccardo & Ale for some students though some had seen Riccardo a few times before so not a wide representation of our performances but given that as a sample it was interesting to hear the students impressions.

One of the most interesting things is to see what people perceive vs. what you intend. This can match up uncannily or be at variance with your intention.

We went on to discuss some fundamental philosophy and principles in our approach to communication in bondage.

This was one of the most fascinating sections of the workshop where we each demonstrated our techniques and methods to the same fundamental concepts.

We could almost create a universal philosophy of rope bondage from some of the work on this day.

Each time we created exercises in our own styles which complimented or extended each others contributions.

This was quite an extraordinary day and a very satisfying one.

It was sad at the end of the day that Ric and Ale had to leave that evening but we will see them again soon.

For us the day ended with friends and students in a local restaurant with some wonderful local food and wine.  A lovely end to the workshop.

The journey home

All good things come to an end and soon Monday came and with it our flight home.

It is with some sense of melancholy that we leave Turin behind and turn home again to England.

We arrived home after some pretty good traffic, in time to eat and have one last taste of Turin, a local bottle of wine we’d taken home with us.

Thanks to everyone who was a part of this weekend. It was great to be with you all. Thanks especially to Ric and Ale who did the work of setting this up. We look forward to returning the favour next year.

D

Marchese Di Barolo

Performances

Kuragame & Shiwase

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First of all I’d like to mention Kuragami and Shiawase who were doing their first performance.

I want to tell them that I wish our first performance had been as good. They really did themselves credit and should be proud of themselves. I’m sure it was nerve wracking for them especially performing in front of their teacher but they did well and it was a beautiful performance.

Wildties & RedSabbath

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Next it was Wildties and RedSabbath who did a beautiful Naka inspired performance. You know you’re going to get something good and firmly routed in the Naka aesthetic from them and they did not disappoint.

We really enjoyed the performance night and though we were a bit worried about being out of shape due to the injury I’d had months before it was a really fun night. I’ll be really happy to get back into rigging now things are improving health wise.

WykD Dave & Clover

Turin Show End

Lastly there was us.

I can’t say I wasn’t very emotional when we started our show. Partly because of how much I wanted to tie clover and partly because of the amazing introduction Riccardo gave us. Thank you for that.

Sometimes I just don’t know what to say!

Thank you everyone who was there.