- workshop in english -

Breath Play - a kinky workshop on breath control

The kink potential of learning to better control your breath is practically limitless. Our breath is our literal life-force. It is the space inside us, and what connects us to each other. We use it for nervous system regulation and excitation, stoking and withholding energy, moving our bodies, holding ourselves and others, all forms of spoken and wordless communication, as well as organising our bodies at the most fundamental cellular level. In this workshop I'll be sharing some techniques and games that draw from a wide range of fields including Taoist sexual alchemy, opera singing, western anatomy and physiology, meditative and yogic breathing, and sustained breath holding (eg. for free-diving). We will learn how to move breath in our bodies for the better organisation of orgasmic energy, as well as for power exchange scenarios in partnered play. We won't be going deeply into forceful forms of partnered breath play (eg. choking) but we will explore how body pressure and verbal control can be used for playing with breath in power exchange scenarios.

A bit about the facilitator: Jess’ approach is technical, intellectual, queer, feminist, political as well as fun, down to earth, pragmatic, warm and cheeky. Her exercises are beautifully simple and invite action, laughter and abundance. She leads people to easily let go of restrictions and encourages them to explore vocal as well as physical expression. She will share her theoretical as well as somatic knowledge on breath, sound and the sexual body. There will be discursive elements in combination with somatic exploration on how to do things with the breath.

Saturday, March 30, 2024 // 16 - 20//

High Income 40€// Normal Income 30€// Low Income 20€

REGISTRATION: Jana <jana.felixruckert@gmx.de>

Jessica Aszodi is a literal shape-shifter. An artist, writer and performer, her voice has been praised for its “utmost security and power” (Chicago Tribune). Its unusual range, both in terms of colour and pitch - make it possible to perform repertoire across genres and voice types, where she creates bespoke techniques and concepts from project to project. Jess has built up a truly idiosyncratic set of embodied knowledges, from cycling while singing, to choreographically affected song, and a not small number of extremely extended vocal techniques. Her favourite thing is challenge.

Jess’ work crosses between opera, experimental music, improvisation, composition, music theatre, and scholarly research. She holds a Doctorate from the Queensland Conservatorium, and her writing focuses on the materiality and politics of embodiment practices in the creation of new performance. She has written articles for several books and journals and is on the steering committee of the radical politics and culture magazine, “Shred”. Here for the renegade voyage, slippery difficulty is her native water.
 
She has performed as soloist with ensembles and opera houses as diverse as ICE (NY), the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras, London Sinfonietta, Wiener Volksoper, Nederlands Reisoper, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Pinchgut Opera, the Tirolean Symphony Orchestra, Victorian Opera, Sydney Chamber Opera, and in the chamber series of the San Diego and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. She has sung in festivals around the world, including Klangspuren, Beethoven Festival Bonn, Resonant Bodies, Vivid Sydney, Aspen Music Festival, BIFEM, the Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide Festivals, Darmstadt, Aldeburgh, Tectonics and Tanglewood. 

Her operatic roles include Eve (Stockhausen’s Dienstag aus Licht), Socrates (Satie’s Socrates), Aminta (Mozart’s Il re pastore), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Sesto (Guilio Cesare), Popova (Walton's The Bear), Rose (Elliot Carter's What Next?) and Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos). Her repertoire stretches from contralto works such as Boulez' Le Marteau sans maître to soprano power-houses like Grisey's Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil. Aszodi has twice been nominated for the Australian Greenroom Awards as ‘best female operatic performer’ - in both the leading and supporting categories.

She has performed the world premieres of operas by composers such as Liza Lim, Augusta Read Thomas and most recently Dai Fujkura (in a Dream of Armageddon / New National Theatre Tokyo), as well of premiering experimental works with a constellation of collaborators, including Anthony Pateras,  Jessie Marino, Cathy Milliken, Sam Dunscombe, and Laura Bowler.

She likes the hard stuff, and getting messy in the process of creating, thick, touching, dancing, thinking, pieces.

See her website: https://www.jessicaaszodi.com