Erato Bänana

Erato Bänana, who often signs simply as Bänana, is a shibari teacher and performer based in Paris and the founder of La Cabäne, a small rope space in the city’s 19th arrondissement. Her own site says she has been drawn to bondage since she was young and came to shibari around ten years ago, attracted by what she calls its raw and authentic character. Event biographies date her start in shibari to 2017. She ties and is tied, and teaches from the perspective of both the rigger and the rope bottom.

Training and Atelier Simonet

A 2023 workshop listing at Atelier Simonet says she first studied with teachers of several styles, among them May Dosem, before following the teaching of Docvale from November 2018 and choosing to concentrate on his style. Docvale’s Atelier Simonet in Aubervilliers presents itself as a Naka-style venue. According to the same listing she worked there as a rigger, model and assistant to Docvale, took part in running the studio, and had been teaching shibari since 2019. Later biographies on Karada House and VoxBody Studio say she co-managed Atelier Simonet until summer 2023.

At Atelier Simonet she taught with Docvale in “Naka style: Heritage,” a two-day workshop in January 2023 that opened a series on the roots, aesthetics and characteristic ties of Naka Akira’s style. With the rope model Chocolapain she developed a workshop on kinbaku without chest harnesses, exploring ways to restrain the hands in semi-suspension and suspension while keeping a coherent look; the listing says it gathered material first taught at the studio in July 2020 and November 2021, and the combined version ran there in July 2023.

La Cabäne and teaching

Karada House’s organizer page says she founded La Cabäne in winter 2024. The space offers group classes she teaches, private and semi-private lessons for pairs, and private trainings in which students choose what to tie and work on refinement, aesthetics or freestyle. The space says it gives priority to queer and marginalized people while remaining open to all. Its 2026–2027 calendar runs introductory classes alongside themed sessions on floor work, takate kote, strappado, hogties, semi-suspension and semenawa; some are co-taught, such as “Expressions of Semenawa,” a partial-suspension workshop with Lavande in November 2026.

Her site describes a demanding and precise teacher who wants students to understand why each technical choice is made rather than memorize instructions, and who runs highly interactive classes that invite questions and feedback, especially from models. She names semenawa and emotional exploration as her focus and stresses physical and psychological safety, consent, inclusivity and the Japanese origins of the practice. In one workshop text she describes torment as a mix of emotions such as fear, excitement and shame that can exist side by side.

Workshops abroad and performance

She teaches in French and English and offers workshops to organizers in France and abroad. Her list of topics includes movement and immobility, kinbaku without chest harness, transitions, predicaments, iconic floor ties, bamboo, suspending someone heavier than oneself and the step from floor to partial suspension. In March 2024 VoxBody Studio in Oakland hosted her and Chocolapain for two workshops during what it called their U.S. tour, and Karada House in Berlin lists online sessions with her for December 2026 and February 2027. Her site adds that she worked for several years as an actress and director and offers rope for performances, photo shoots and video.