Saara Rei
Berlin performance artist and kinbaku educator who has practiced rope since 2014 as both bottom and rigger, co-founded the rope-bottom curriculum Embodied in Rope, co-hosts the Model Behaviour podcast and has presented at EURIX since 2018.
Saara Rei is a performance artist, kinbaku practitioner and workshop facilitator based in Berlin. Her bios describe a background in music, dance, education and public speaking, and a rope practice since 2014 in which she works both as a rope bottom and as a rigger. Her performance style is billed as surreal and emotionally charged.
Approach
According to Daruma, the Berlin studio where she teaches, her work centers on power dynamics, sadomasochism and emotional exploration, and treats chosen suffering as a way into presence. The studio describes her teaching as grounded, playful and humorous, and notes that she counts herself a student of Felix Ruckert and the Schwelle7 community. Her bios also say she has worked with well-known riggers of the international kinbaku scene, without naming them.
Teaching and EURIX
Saara Rei has a long record at EURIX, the twice-yearly European exchange for experienced riggers and models. The festival’s page lists her as a presenter in autumn 2018 (billed with Butterfly, from Stockholm and Utrecht), in spring 2023, and in autumn 2025 with Anna Noctuelle; as an instructor of the beginner course with Velvetine in spring 2024 and with Nicolas Yoroi in autumn 2024; and as a special guest with Gestalta in autumn 2026. At Daruma she led a day-long workshop, Pain & Impact Play, in November 2026, covering both physical impact and the emotional side of a scene, such as shame, submission and fear; the studio notes that the workshop is not therapy.
With Anna Noctuelle and Natasha NawaTaNeko she co-founded Embodied in Rope, an educational project and curriculum for rope bottoms.
Model Behaviour
The same three co-host Model Behaviour, a podcast about rope bondage and shibari told from the model’s side; the hosts present themselves as rope models and educators with more than forty years of combined experience. Episodes, many released in two parts, cover topics such as aging in ropes, relationships and jealousy, embodiment and fashion. In the fifteenth episode (June 2026) she interviews Freya Hellesdim about keeping a rope practice going alongside children, work and other commitments.
Performance
Gestalta’s site shows the two performing together at Kinbaku Lounge and a portrait of Saara Rei in Gestalta’s rope. In July 2026 Yugen Studio streamed a performance by Kirigami and Saara Rei that included semenawa, on a bill with Giorgia tied by Marta Tenshiko.