SAARA REI
Saara is a performance artist and workshop facilitator with a professional background in music, dance, education, and public speaking.
She has been performing as a dancer and classical musician since early childhood. As a result, performance has always seemed like a natural part of her life. Saara’s performance style varies greatly depending on her audience and her fellow performers, as she views performance as a genuine collaboration between everyone on stage and those watching. She has a personal penchant for the absurd, the extreme, and the unsettling, and often likes to explore themes that aim to provoke dark, contradictory, and dissonant feelings.
Saara has been practicing Japanese-inspired rope bondage since 2014. She believes that it’s impossible for two people tying each other up to hide what’s truly there between them, and that this guaranteed vulnerability is what makes ropes so special. Saara is an experienced rope bottom who is grateful to have had the chance to tie with so many wonderful, talented people around the world who have taught her so much about herself and about being in rope.
Her love for being tied has led her to rope play, and she finds herself deeply influenced by Pilar, Tamandua, Felix Ruckert, Nicolas Yoroï, and Akira Naka on both sides of the ropes. Her more than ten years of dance experience have given Saara a strong foundation of body awareness and experience that carries over into her rope practice and teaching. To dance is to communicate with your body, and with that in mind, there is no question that we are all dancing with our ropes.
As a kinkster, power play has always been an important aspect of sexuality and self-expression for Saara. She believes that hierarchy is always present in our interactions with others and that it should be embraced and understood, rather than resisted. She strongly emphasizes that the top and the bottom create a scene together, each with equally important roles and shared responsibility. With a strong sadomasochistic streak, Saara loves exploring physical pain as well as humiliation, shame, and fear from every angle. She believes that if one can truly confront their darkest feelings and emotions, they can be understood and become familiar… shedding light on them, so that they are no longer monsters lurking unseen in the darkness.
Learning to sit with these typically unpleasant feelings and emotions has been deeply healing for Saara, and she likes to encourage others to do the same—in a responsible, intentional, and safe way.
In general, Saara’s work centers on the exploration of suffering. Through her kink practice, she has come to understand that suffering arises from comparing what has been or what could be to the present moment. And with that, one cannot suffer when they are truly present, in the now. This profound realization has been a major driving force for her and has helped her maintain a deep sense of peace even in some of the most difficult situations, both in kink and in her everyday life. With the knowledge Saara has gained from this practice of chosen suffering, she enjoys teaching others how to use suffering as a path to presence in every aspect of life.
With a Ph.D. in mathematics, Saara’s academic teaching experience and training add an intellectual flair that complements her performative approach to bodywork. Playfulness and humor are central to Saara’s personality and outlook on life, giving her workshops a very exploratory and lighthearted atmosphere, even when addressing some of the most serious topics. She considers herself a student of Felix Ruckert and the “ Schwelle7 ” community. With that, she hopes to carry on the spirit of the space she was once part of, sharing the lessons she has learned and the perspectives she has gained during her time there.
