Five Waves of Rope

Aug 23, 2024

When communities and scenes start existing over a number of years, it’s normal for them to go through different stages of evolution, as people change, relationships evolve, and knowledge expands.

The rope scene in Europe has existed now long enough that it’s possible to make some broad strokes observations. I’ve done this as a sort of personal reflection, but I think it can be useful for a more general understanding of where we come from and where we are now. This is not about history (it would take a whole PhD to sort that out!) but a general frame (in rope we do like frames too).

Of course, as much as I’m trying to explain something of broad scope, I’m making a lot of assumptions here and I’ve a specific point of view on the matter as someone living in Europe, being an international teacher and being located specifically in London.

My intent with this writing is not being prescriptive or too strict, but to create a loose frame of reference for people to understand the journey we have done and why different people might have different perspectives on rope depending on what rope they identify with. It’s also important that this isn’t meant to assign a box to anyone. If a wave resonates with you, that’s what matters. Feel free to adopt it, ignore it, or change it as you like.

First Wave: Living Rooms

This is a period of time I’ve just heard about as it predates any of my involvement in the scene. It’s a time where people had private groups in their living rooms, and that’s how they got to know each other, and shared a common interest in rope.

The scene was small, shared by word of mouth, and knowledge was built up by individual experiences and sharing from other peers.

Approximate years: before 2008
Defining traits: sharing, private, pioneering.

Second Wave: Peer Ropes

This represents the first major emergence of shibari in Europe and the organization of the first groups that created the community we know of today. It used to be still mostly underground, often using nicknames to avoid disclosing their identity due to possible risks for individuals. People started opening up their living rooms more, and occasionally renting spaces to share knowledge with even larger groups.

This period is mostly identifiable by “peer ropes”, spaces where people sharing interest met and shared knowledge. The sources were the most disparate, and everyone did their best to learn.

People occasionally either flew to Japan or invited over one of the Japanese “masters” to come and teach locally. In London one of the most influential events in this period was the London Festival of the Art of Japanese Bondage, running roughly between 2010 and 2013, that brought in London many experts.

These small groups often had deep knowledge and usually explored one specific style of rope, trying to master it to their best and follow its “traditional” rules, sometimes helping formalize patterns in the process.

Approximate years: 2008 – 2012
Defining traits: passion, deep focus.

Third Wave: Studios

Once these groups reached a critical mass, some people organized further and opened studios in various cities across Europe. These spaces became the central point of local communities, bringing in often a specific “house style” and a vibe to the kind of rope they are doing, often based on the initial imprinting of the founders. These studios and their founders did an incredible job in accelerating the spread of rope across Europe, allowing many more people to find and learn about it.

This period also marks more wide adoption. Nicknames aren’t enforced that strictly anymore for most people, and mainstream acceptance increases. Some local newspapers and magazines start reporting on the “new trend”. Open rope events are advertised on social media. On Instagram we start seeing the community more openly sharing their rope journeys.

A major shift in culture also happened here where models and bottoms started having more and more relevance, they were actively included in teaching and there was an active effort in putting everyone on the same level of importance.

One of the more “transitional” organizations across the second and third wave is Schwelle in Berlin, which started gathering a wider community of learners and moved into stable spaces over time.

Some examples of these early studios. This is a non-exhaustive list, it’s just a general reference to give the idea of this period taking shape, and some existed as ad-hoc events even before they had a studio:

Ellipsis (Netherlands, 2016)
Shibari Lounge (Belgium, 2016)
Anatomie Studio (UK, 2015)
Kinbaku Lounge (Denmark, 2015)
Place des Cordes (France, 2013) – now closed
Shibari Dojo Vienna (Austria, 2011)

There are clearly more, but this should give a general idea.

Approximate years: 2012 – 2018
Defining traits: studios, founders’ style, expansion, models equality.

Fourth Wave: Remix

At some points the studios started to have regulars that evolved into experts in their own right. This wave is often (but not exclusively) the first group of people that learned in these studios. They usually had a much accelerated pace (often due to jams to practice offered weekly instead of monthly) and benefited from the variety of teachers that each studio brought in.

Additionally, the visibility of the studios with the more general population started bringing in a variety of people from different backgrounds, something that started creating cross-contamination of rope with other artistic and creative areas. It’s not uncommon for example to have dance, circus, theater, and in general performing artists getting into rope. This also meant that the practice of rope expanded even further to be non-erotic and open up to possibilities.

Another cultural shift in this period has been the one of diversity: the studios created an initial space for wider adoption, and this meant that more queer people started to flow in. This also started to break a lot of the heteronormativity of early rope groups.

Due to part of this wave existing during the Covid lockdowns, this is also a moment of distinct growth online. The Instagram rope scene especially grew sensibly during this period, and a lot more has started being offered online to expand even further learning opportunities. The online offering increases, with websites like Shibari Study, Learn Shibari, Shibari Classes, and others offering structured lessons, as well as teachers organizing live online classes.

Approximate years: 2018 – 2023
Defining traits: creativity, cross-discipline, queer, online.

Fifth Wave: Today

Where this is going to go, it’s now difficult to say. The fifth wave of rope is happening today, and it still has to take its own shape and find its own characterizing elements.

I can just hope for more creativity, more inclusion, more diversity, and ultimately, more acceptance and fun.

Approximate years: 2023-today
Defining traits: still unknown.

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As noted in the introduction, this is just a high level approximate view of events. To know more, there is nothing better than talking to the people that were there at the time. Yet, this view is also likely to help in doing exactly that, and understanding why different groups seem to be behaving differently and thinking differently about rope. Sometimes you come from a certain wave, and you find a different wave “strange”, I hope this helps in answering why and giving some ideas.

I’d love to know your perspective. Keeping in mind the premise that it’s going to be hard to agree on a universal take, we can provide more depth in the comments. Do these waves resonate with you? Would you redefine or correct anything? Do you identify in any of these waves?

Credits: Jenni Noon, Noctuelle, Anna Bones, Fred Hatt, Haag