Joan von Brook

Joan von Brook is a Czech rope teacher, performer, model and rigger and one of the two founders of Subspace, a bodywork studio in Prague focused mainly on shibari and BDSM. Her profile on the studio’s website is the main published source about her.

Rope career

The profile says she has been passionate about shibari since 2013. She started on the side of the person being tied and soon also learned to tie, and since 2015 she has taught workshops and performed in the Czech Republic and abroad. As a rigger she names Soptík and Nicolas Arnoys as her main inspirations. As a model, the profile says, she draws on experience of demanding ties, mainly in Naka-ryū and Yoroï-ryū and in tying with Tifereth.

At the end of 2018 she and Petr Soptík opened Subspace. The studio describes its aim as creating a home for meeting friends, having fun and learning, and says that since 2019 several of its own students have joined the teaching team. It runs workshops, festivals, parties, lectures and jams, and its education program is organized as a graded structure of workshops for every level, complemented by visiting teachers from abroad.

Nicolas ryu

At Subspace she teaches Nicolas ryu, the style of the Brussels-based rigger A-Nicolas, formerly called Yoroï ryu. The studio’s page on the style describes her as the only teacher of it in the Czech Republic who holds an authorization from Nicolas. She leads a study group, which the page describes in one place as meeting every third Thursday and in its FAQ as meeting every three weeks, and one or two weekend workshops a year, with titles such as “Enzo, flow a dialog” and evening sessions on specific ties such as the gyaku ashi. The studio presents the style as minimalist and flowing, built on body mechanics, anatomy, efficient rope handling and cooperation between partners, and summarizes it in five principles: foundations, fluidity and creativity, meaning, openness and presence. Some of her study groups are held in English.

Teaching approach

Her profile says her passion as a teacher is designing practical exercises for every level that are built on the experience of both the person tying and the person being tied. Her workshop list at Subspace includes the beginners’ series “Seznámení s provazy” (introduction to rope) with partial suspensions, the open Tuesday class “Vázání pro každého” with themes such as rhythm and flow, bamboo on the floor and movement, and advanced Thursday sessions. The same list includes SHNEK, Subspace’s annual two-day gathering in early July, billed as the most important home-grown rope event in the Czech Republic,, whose program is shaped by the participants themselves.

She teaches abroad as well. Daruma, the Berlin studio of Gestalta, lists two events with her and Nikoleta Ginger in January 2027: an evening on active bottoming in floorwork and suspension, covering body mechanics, weight shifts and tension management from the side of the person in the rope, and a weekend on playful floorwork and partial suspensions. According to the Subspace profile, she has offered private lessons since February 2026.