L’Alternée
The intimacy-focused programme of the Brussels Art & Pole studio offers a three-level shibari curriculum plus themed workshops and jams, presented as queer and ethical practice with consent as non-negotiable. Teaching is led mainly by Juliette, and places are booked per pair.
L’Alternée describes itself as a Brussels space for exploring the body, sexuality, relationships and the senses, and its shibari program is listed on the site of the Brussels Art & Pole studio. The program presents shibari as a relational practice that needs technical training, an understanding of risk and good communication, and warns against learning alone from online videos.
Its approach is stated as queer and ethical. Students are encouraged to switch roles, tying and being tied in turn, and the page explicitly challenges the picture of a dominant man tying a younger, submissive woman. It says the person tied has an equal voice, that rope is meant to build a relationship rather than domination, and that consent is not negotiable. The studio keeps documentation and a warning list for people who practice outside it with strangers.
Most workshops are led by Juliette, who according to the page has practiced since 2016, started as a model and trained with several teachers. The page describes her tying as improvised “structured chaos” informed by aikido and contact dance. Most workshops are given by Juliette together with Raphaël, her model partner, and guest riggers are invited for some themes. Juliette’s own site describes an organic, intimate approach that puts physical and emotional safety, inclusion and verbal and non-verbal communication first.
The curriculum has three technical levels. Level 1 is a three-session course in floor ties; levels 2 and 3 can be booked as single sessions by people who have taken at least one class at the level below or already tie. Places are booked per pair through Eversports unless a listing says otherwise. The spring and summer 2026 agenda shows how this works in practice: pair and solo versions of levels 1 and 2, a level 3 class on verticality, workshops on solo partial suspension, on calming the nervous system with a hammock and rope and on slowness, a two-day guest weekend on floor work and suspension with the teacher Genks, and supervised jams, one of them reserved for people of color. The site is in French.