A Sunday Afternoon Special in Shibari Lounge: Myofascia Breathing applied to Shibari

Myofascia Breathing is a restoring set of stretches and motions practiced with Shibari ropes. It deepens our perception to internal motions and teaches us to balance and harmonise the tensions within us. By awakening our presence to our connectivity through the myofascia (muscle connective tissue), we can better understand our injuries or movement limitations, and rewrite ourselves into a more resilient, integrative body and life/practice experience. Myofascia Breathing is an experiential research on deep lengthening and energising of the myofascia developed by Louise Chardon.

Louise Chardon will be in Belgium on Sunday the 9th of August to share her research. This moment is meant to nurture and enhance Shibari practices, as well for the one tying as for the one being tied. In the first part of the workshop she will explore Myofascia Breathing with us through exercise. In the second part of the workshop she will accompany our application of Myofascia Breathing during Shibari practice. By learning how to breathe into tensions and open our internal space/connectivity/circulation as we apply the ropes, we grow our and our partner’s capacity to endure and absorb, and to transmit/transform during bondage, so that it becomes an evolving and resourcing experience.

Time: 13:30 – 18:30

Limited number of participants

Price: €90 per couple, drinks and a snack included

Prerequisites: basic experience in Shibari, easy-fitting clothing, ropes

The workshop will be in English, some translation into Dutch or French available

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Fasciae (connective tissue) refers to the collagenous web that surrounds, supports and connects all of our bodily systems, passing by each organ and muscle bundle.

The myofascia is an aspect of the connective tissue network that meanders around and within all muscles, creating a semi-fluidic matrix interconnecting all individual muscle cells into one continuous system. This network is our organ and structure of motion, enabling us to evolve as an intelligent and sentient unit.

In a healthy terrain, this fasciae network is spongeous and resilient. When experiencing physical trauma or inflammation, the fascia loses its pliability and hardens, and so inhibits physiologic (nerves/blood/lymph) and energetic circulations, impacting our wellbeing and health. The art of releasing the (myo-) fascia is to call back fluidity and circulation into the connective tissue. Understanding and experiencing motion by integrating the intelligence of the myofascia network allows our bodily expression to be harmonious. It supports energy flow and physiological balance. It also helps to improve posture, multi-joint stability and strength.

In Myofascia Breathing we cultivate resiliency and openness by releasing blockages and tensions throughout the semi-fluidic connective matrix within us, nurtured by breath, enabling endurance, effortless motion and connected flow. Myofascia Breathing is a restoring set of breath-full stretches and motions practiced with Shibari ropes. The ropes are fantastic tools to tune into the subtle lines of connections within ourselves, enabling us to listen tacitly within and harmonise our entity. We deepen our perception to internal motions and learn to balance and harmonise the tensions within us. By awakening our presence to our connectivity through the myofascia, we can better understand our injuries or movement limitations, and rewrite ourselves into a more resilient, integrative body and life/practice experience.

On the researcher:

Louise Chardon has dedicated her life to dance and the study of the being in movement for over 30 years. Graduated from the Paris Conservatory, she first developed as a dancer in main companies (National Ballet of Canada, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Batsheva Dance Company, Plan-K/Charleroi Danses) and with independent choreographers (Andy Degroat, Eddy Malhem, Frederic Lescure, Anya Hempel, Felix Ruckert, Ugo Dehaes), before engaging in her own creative process. In 2007, with Luk Van den Dries she founded AndWhatBeside(s)Death and the CarWash Theater, a platform for the development of performative arts (Antwerp, Belgium). They developed what they named Intimate and Sensitive Theater and created several productions together.

Louise started to explore Shibari and other BDSM practices when she performed with Felix Ruckert and with Dasniya Sommer. For 10 years, she has specialised in the deep sensitive abilities of the being and how its subconscious expresses through movement. She mainly applies her researches to her performative oeuvre and shares it through her pedagogic and therapeutic approach, which she defines as Embodied Philosophy and Energetic Physiology.

Louise is recognised as contemporary dance teacher (DE) by the French National Education and is Certified Practitioner in Body-Mind Centering® and has long practiced Chi Kung, Yoga and Authentic Movement.