RopeLounge

RopeLounge is the teaching project of Eileen, known in rope as Asiana, who founded it in May 2013 and is its principal teacher. Her course pages say she has taken workshops and masterclasses with several teachers, including Japanese ones, and spent three months in Japan in 2017 to study kinbaku and Japanese culture. She is regularly invited to teach and perform in the Netherlands and abroad, and works with organizations that run classes for LGBTQI+ and BIPOC communities. A recent class listing describes her as having taught shibari in Amsterdam for more than fifteen years.

The curriculum is laid out in levels. A two-hour introduction workshop is meant for people who want to find out whether rope suits them. It needs no partner and no rope, participants who come alone are paired up, and everyone both ties and is tied; a November 2026 date was listed at €37.50 plus fees. The beginners course gives about ten hours of teaching, either as a summer intensive or as four lessons. The Thursday edition runs four weekly 2.5-hour evenings for six to eight couples, without switching, and covers one-rope work, applications of the single column tie and double column tie, rope handling, advice for the person being tied, partner dynamics and safety. It was priced at €325 per couple plus fees (November 2026). Intermediate levels 1 and 2 follow and are open only to graduates of the earlier course; level 1 introduces the takate kote. An occasional workshop prepares students to move from floor work toward partial suspension.

On almost every first and third Friday RopeLounge teaches at Lola Lieven, a neighborhood venue in Amsterdam Nieuw-West. Each evening has two hours of class on a changing theme, such as wrapping or rope drawn from hojōjutsu, followed by an hour of rope jam. The classes are open to all but center LGBTQI+ and marginalized people, switching is encouraged, and a spaceholder is present. Because the teacher is allergic to scented products, students are asked not to wear perfume or similar. Asiana also co-hosts the podcast Rope Ramblings with Door.