FELIX RUCKERT
After a long career as an internationally recognized dancer and choreographer, Felix Ruckert expanded his skills when he discovered Shibari or Kinbaku - Japanese rope bondage - while on tour in Japan in 1999. Initially self-taught, copying only from photos in Japanese Rope Bondage magazines, he soon had the chance to study with Hagen in Berlin, Matthias T.J. Grimme, Midori, Shadow and Osada Steve, who became his first teachers between 2002 and 2006.
When he opened the schwelle7 venue in 2007, it quickly became an important hub for the international Shibari community. For nine years, Felix regularly invited masters from Japan to schwelle7, giving him the opportunity to expand his knowledge and learn from some of Japan's most influential masters: Arisue Go, Nawashi Kanna, Hajime Kinoko, Akira Naka, Otonaya Otonawa and Ren Yagami, among others. Through the extensive and very popular Shibari programme at schwelle7, Felix Ruckert made a significant contribution to popularizing the practice in Berlin and throughout Europe. The location and style of schwelle7 became a model for many rope bondage dojos across the continent. Coming from dance and theater, Felix Ruckert also created dozens of rope bondage performances and worked with artists such as Dasniya Sommer, Caritia, Gorgone, Nicolas Yoroi, Anna Noctuelle, Pilar LaOtra, Tifereth, Sophia Rose, Saara Rei and many more. He also created several performances in a theater context that integrated elements of Japanese Rope Bondage: STILLEN (2000), DIE FARM (2006), DRYADE - A DARK FAIRY (2011) and ZERO GRAVITY ZONE (2012).
Felix Ruckert currently curates and organizes EURIX - The European Rigger&Model Exchange in Berlin twice a year, the most popular international gathering for rope artists involved in the development of Kinbaku as an art form. For EURIX, Felix has written the Guidelines for Rope Bondage Presenters as well as the EURIX Guidelines for Negotiation and Establishing Consent. At EURIX he regularly presents short rope bondage performances using three conceptual rules: Using Innovative Technique, Defining Narrative and Subtext, and Applying Tools of Immediate Composition.
Felix's private and public restraints are unconventional and do not follow any particular style. He draws on a wide variety of techniques and schools, his bondage adapts to every partner and every situation, he composes with body, rope, time and space, often in unpredictable ways.
On the technical side, he tries to invent new patterns and bindings and is particularly interested in creative and quick suspensions, often using a minimum of rope, both on bamboo and on the ring. He also likes floor work, integrating other forms of sensual practices, especially impact games and knives, to breath control and mindfuck.
On stage, he tries to create strong theatrical experiences, create meaning, provoke reactions and thoughts. He also likes to reflect on and explore the social and political implications that the rope bondage practice might have. He sees the practice as a model for mutually beneficial, very human collaboration, as an exercise in consensus, as a way to reinterpret power relations and to deconstruct gender stereotypes.
