Body Play
A 5-day experience in the Sierra Nevada to retreat, to play, and to be in your body.
Flanked by Spanish mountains, the Caseria del Mercado retreat centre provides us with a private, rustic location to step out of the city and into our skin.
Combining practices of movement and stretching, thai yoga massage, and rope bondage, this retreat is an invitation to dip into playful physical practices on your own and with others.
The daily movement practice will be focusing on body and breath explorations.
With thai yoga massage, we practice the basics of presence through touch, get to understand biomechanics and learn to play creatively and safely with another body.
We apply that presence and body awareness to a beginners rope bondage class set to take you from zero to easy suspension in 5 days. When we get to the suspensions we will make use of the reinforced iron roof covered with suspension hooks, originally designed for hanging hams.
People of all levels are welcome to attend, so whether you are an advanced yoga practitioner, an aspiring masseuse or a complete beginner at rope, we aim to provide experiences and techniques that are accessible and interesting for you.
You can join the retreat on your own, or with someone.
Content in a day:
Walk and hot drink
Stretching and movement
Breakfast
Thai Massage or pair work
Lunch and siesta
Rope Workshop
Dinner
Evening session (Play party, sauna, group practices)
Nothing is obligatory, although we recommend for the sake of continuity that you participate as often as possible.
There are plenty of trekking routes and alternative options for those who do not wish to participate in all the group activities offered; including a chlorine-free swimming pool and sauna.
Costs
including all meals, snack, stay and workshops:
Camping: €540
Shared accommodation (dorm and shared rooms) €600
Single or double accommodation €650
If money is an issue, get in touch with us.
Sign up
by writing a mail to bodyplay2019@gmail.com
Food
is locally sourced. The Cortijo prides itself on offering fresh, delicious meals. Vegan options are available at every meal.
Arrival
from 16hr on Monday the 7th.
19.00 dinner and opening session. PLease let ud know if you arrive later than 19.
Departure after breakfast on Saturday the 12th.
Earlier arrival and longer stay is possible for additional cost. Please email us for information.
Transport
to the Caseria is either by car or bus.
Closest airports are Granada and Malaga.
Granada is a little over an hour drive. Malaga is about 2 hours away. Car hire is very cheap in Spain at this time of year. Arrange to have a car waiting for you in the airport.
From Granada you can catch a bus to Orgiva. We can arrange to pick you up from Orgiva.
Detailed road directions & bus timetables are available on request.
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/caseriademercado/
Homepage link: http://cortijolacaseria.com/en_GB/
About the practices:
The thai yoga massage will offer the practice of meditation in movement, giving specific techniques for creating flow in the body, as well as guidelines for how to relate to bodywork in a creative and free way. Emphasis is given on how to stay connected to your own body as you give the massage. This practice is complementary to the work with ropes. The thai massage workshops are suited for beginners and experienced alike.
For rope bondage, the program will be set with the beginner in mind. We will start with the basics, focusing on improvisation, body management, and basic technique. We will then move onto learning about suspension lines and how the use of gravity can affect our movement and play. From suspension lines we will learn the basics necessary for forming stable structures on the body for semi-suspension and suspension play, with a strong emphasis on the safety and communication practices that come along with such play. We will finish the week with some simple semi-suspension and possibly suspension work that will give all those participating in the full week a taste of the depths that rope can take us to.
Please email if you have further questions.
About us:
Rebecca is a RYT200hr hatha yoga teacher, tantric masseuse and certified Thai yoga massage practitioner. A yoga practitioner for over 10 years, her interest in movement and bodywork became her full focus in 2013 when she began full time training as a Thai masseuse in Chiang Mai. Her studies at Sunshine House with Kaline Kelly, Arno LHermitte, and Itzhak Helman combined with her electrifying entrance into the world of BDSM by attending Felix Ruckert’s Xplore festival the same year. She then proceeded to study sexuality and sexual bodywork, learning and assisting with such teachers as Klara Luhmen, Daniel Odier, Swami Vivekananda, Kai Erdhert, Ruby May, Seani Love, Marina Kronkvist, Micha Stella, Nicolas Yoroi and Felix Ruckert. Since 2015 she has been facilitating her own workshops on movement and touch, in which she integrates experience in hatha yoga and iyengar, modern dance, massage, tandava, somatic bodywork, contact improvisaton, BDSM, japanese rope bondage and tantra.
Line has a life-long interest in the relating and communication between people, and how to dare to be intimate in the connection. In her view, having a free, intimate and creative relationship with our bodies, as well as with others, brings excitement, joy and connection. A diverse background in bodywork, acrobatics, meditation, theatre, singing, stagework, and spaceholding has given her extensive experience of working and teaching in the field, and accompanies her into the exciting and touching world of exploring body-mind connection in many different forms.
Line believes that all practices striving towards freedom and comfort zone-expansion take an equal amount of daring and safety, and she offers both when she holds space for exploration that encompasses many aspects of physical practice, including relating to self and others. Line has been teaching since 2008. Over the last 8 years she has given numerous classes, workshop and retreats in acroyoga, yoga, meditation, kirtan, thai yoga massage and conscious relating.
Saara has been practicing rope for over six years. She believes that it’s impossible for two people tying together to hide what’s truly there between them, and that this guarantied vulnerability is what’s truly special about ropes. Saara is a seasoned rope bottom, and has been tied with many internationally known riggers, each one giving her new insights on how to be in rope. Her love for being tied has lead her to tying, and she finds her style to be deeply influenced by Tamandua, Pilar, Andy Buru, Felix Ruckert, Nicolas Yoroi, and Kristina Marlen. Her over ten years of dance experience has given Saara a strong base of body awareness knowledge and experience that transfers over to her rope practice and teaching. To dance is to communicate with your body, and with that, there is no question that we are all dancing with our ropes. Through semenawa, or kinbaku that creates a feeling of helplessness and endurance, Saara has come to understand that suffering comes from the comparison of what has been or could be to the present moment. And with that, one cannot suffer when they are truly present. This deep realization has been a main driving force for her when doing rope, and has aided her in maintaining deep peace in even some of the most difficult of situations. With the knowledge Saara has gained from the practice of semenawa, she enjoys teaching about how to use pain as a path to meditation, serenity, and pleasure.