Sydney

The Sydney scene

In Sydney, rope teaching grew up alongside the city’s wider kink community, and some of its teachers trained in Japan and taught in North America. The regional story, from early tours by Japanese teachers to dojos and festivals across Australia, is told in Kinbaku in Asia-Pacific and Kinbaku goes global. This page adds what is specific to Sydney.

A dojo and a festival

By the early 2010s the city had a dedicated rope school and its own festival. Writing in Archer Magazine in September 2014, the performer and rope student Emma Kate described the Sydney Rope Dojo, where classes covered rope handling, safety, risk reduction and injury prevention, and where students could try new things with partners in a safe setting. The same article announced the Sydney Rope Festival of 4 to 6 October 2014, with workshops, talks and performances for every level from beginner to advanced. International teachers came for it: the Berlin rope artist Gestalta lists presentations at Sydney shibari festivals in 2013 and 2014.

Studio Kink

One of the city’s rope studios is Studio Kink, a kink education and community centre founded in 2015 by Mark De Viate, Lani DeViate, Aleni De Viate and Precipice. Mark De Viate’s career links the studio to older parts of the scene. He co-founded the kink house DV8House in 2001, performed with Lani at the Sydney Hellfire Club from 2006 to 2019, and refined his rope through mentorship with Osada Steve in Japan, in the Akechi Denki tradition. Outside the scene, he provided the shibari for Opera Australia’s 2019 Madama Butterfly and coordinates the studio’s Mardi Gras floats. His North American teaching is covered in Kinbaku in North America. The studio’s team page credits Lani with aerial rope and fluid transitions and Precipice with a clean, methodical style focused on dynamic suspension.

A volunteer studio

Shibari Sydney works on a different model. Shibari enthusiasts set it up, and volunteers keep it running. The studio aims to pay the guest teachers and performers it brings in, and uses the rest of its income to keep the space open. Classes come from both local and overseas teachers, starting from an introductory level-1A class, and the space can be hired for related activities such as lyra, yoga and performance.

Shape of the scene

Sydney’s scene combines a kink education centre with deep roots in the local community and a volunteer studio open to visiting teachers. Both advertise in English. A similar emphasis on structured, safety-focused classes appears in other Australian cities; the Melbourne page and the Asia-Pacific history give examples. For general background before a first class, see What happens at a first shibari class and Is shibari dangerous?.