Marcus has now sent in a full report on his amazing emotional artistic and sexual experiences at Xplore 2010. Click the headline to read the whole thing. "We were a large group tightly squeezed in a small studio, and the lion cubs effect worked for me: piling up of bodies against each other as we slowly moved and crawled about".
7th edition
An amazing post sexual workshop
http://www.xplore-berlin.de/
I am a French man from Paris. I work in film, I am currently developing more and more of my own creative work across platforms. I am a true bi-sexual, equally attracted to and turned on by both men and women. I have always had a strong taste for sexual exploration as an art form in itself.
I had heard about Xplore through Felix Ruckert, the man and choreographer who invented it and who runs Schwelle 7 in Wedding, a dance studio facility that pushes the boundaries of art, performance and dance into unmapped exciting sexual , sensory and intimate sharing territories. (1As a foot note, I have included the way Schwelle 7 defines Xplore and itself in the Xplore program)
Xplore gathered about 250 people for 3 days at the end of July, around the project of exploring their own limits, in a physical and mental space where sex meets art, open sharing and self development. The cost was 145 euros per person for the three days. There were one day options also available.
It was organised around 3 different physical spaces. 15 one and a half hour long workshops were held everyday in total, 3 in each space simultaneously: there were 2 workshops in the mornings, 2 in the afternoons, and one each night. This way any one could choose among 3 different workshops at any given time. There was a 30 minutes break between each workshop, and an hour and a half break for lunch.
People were all very different: ages from 19 to 60, men, women, couples, gay men, lesbians, bi and undetermined, trans sexuals and queers, dancers and accountants, …all of them open minded enough to be there, ready to try, listen to or witness just about anything.
What most amazed me throughout the three days was this beautiful open spirit that every single participant brought to the experience. There was no judgment, I never felt so free in a collective situation to do whatever came to my mind or my senses…including sexual exploration…
From Tongue to Tail
It started out with the first Friday morning workshop. I chose Kai Ehrhardt class called "From Tongue to Tail" (over "Animalesque Yoga" and "Erotic Breath", the other 2 simultaneous workshops) because Kai is an amazingly sexy looking man, his friends Yorgos and Eric who sort of were going to assist him were also 2 very attractive men, and the brief on what the class was about was really strange and intriguing2.
Kai taught us how to feel our tails, make deep sounds with the deeper throat muscles, a bit like frogs do. He has a very deep quiet voice that worked really really well on me…The kind of voice that makes you melt. We took long breathing exercises. We tried to relax into states where we let movements happen to us instead of trying to initiate them. We were a large group tightly squeezed in a small studio, and the lion cubs effect worked for me: piling up of bodies against each other as we slowly moved and crawled about…
By the end the effect was both relaxing and focusing. I loved it.
Dirty Talk
Then after a half hour break on the roof terrace I joined the "Dirty Talk" class by Ottokar Lehrner.
We played games involving writing dirty words or fragments of sentences by groups of 5, in a "cadavre exquis" fashion. We then had to read them out loud to everyone. I was in a group with Kai, Yorgos and Eric and also Maggie, my favourite woman goddess (too long to explain …) It was childish fun and very playful.
Exhibitionism for the Shy
After the lunch break, it was time for Maggie’s workshop (Maggie Tapert) : "Exhibitionism for the Shy".
There were about 100 people for this one in the large studio space.
We started by dancing freely to funky music. Then we sat in a big circle while Maggie talked. We then wandered around the room until we chose a partner or were chosen by one. We then had to tell each other an intimate secret about ourselves that we had never told anyone else before. My partner was a young rasta man from London and I loved his secret, it was a beautiful and dangerous one…and I will never tell anyone, the same way that I know he will never tell mine…
Then we sat down again in a large circle. After a bit of feed back, Maggie invited anyone who wanted, to step into the middle of the circle and show something of themselves. Anything. There was total silence as one after another, men and women stood up and came to the heart of our circle. One woman showed a scar on her naked thigh. One lesbian girl just undressed entirely and stood there in silence for a short while. A chunky man walked around showing his fat belly. A girl stood there looked at everyone and started crying. A man did the same after undressing. A man in drag pulled off his fake silicon tits from his bra. A woman undressed entirely, lied on her back and spread her legs wide, showing her pussy around very slowly by turning to face everyone in the circle, gently moving her legs like tentacles; this was a stunning beautiful dance; she then sat back in the circle and remained stark naked deeply moved by what she had just done. Peter, an Englishman, walked naked on four limbs and stuffed a stick in his ass showing this to everyone…etc…
It may sound basic and plain when said like this. But the experience of it was actually very moving and strong. It was a ritual of respect and acceptance. It was transforming for those who had the guts to step up and show something. Maggie handled this with amazing grace and dignity, giving this moment the feeling of a ceremony.
I was so charged up by the end of this event that my friend Esther Maria and I found ourselves totally aroused. We started kissing and hugging on one of the beds on the side of the studio and very quickly we were having sex right there, oblivious of what and who surrounded us. Maggie came to lie down with us and we fucked happily as people around us either watched, sipped tea or relaxed. It was a great sexual moment of exhibitionism follow up to Maggie’s workshop. Totally inspiring and liberating…! Esther Maria was totally into it and so was I. No fears, no inhibitions, complete open, free sexual intuition.
Ponies
When Kai had to start his class again in the studio we stopped making love and went to check out the "Ponies" workshop. A girl with all the appropriate equestrian attire explained in details how to treat a man as a horse. Her partner had the whole gear attached to him and was a seemingly a very willing stallion. But it was a bit too technical and cold for us so we left.
I had to meet some friends so I left Xplore for that day, unfortunately skipping the evening "Rope Bondage Contest" lead by Felix Ruckert.
Lab.oratory
I went to the party at Lab.oratory that evening and had wonderful sex in the open air courtyard there with a large number of male partners. I was so energized by the day’s adventures I seemed to never have enough that night…At some point in the night there was a storm and I stayed outside with my partner of the moment, fucking in the rain. It was a high communion moment: with this unknown naked man wildly offering himself to me, with the sky through the falling rain on my naked skin, with raw energy flowing through me…I came then and it was a perfect conclusion to my first day at Xplore.
I felt very slow that second morning. I painfully bicycled from Schöneberg to Wedding and arrived at the studio when the "Animalesque Yoga" had already started. I slouched myself on a sofa in the studio and just watched. Esther Maria showed up after a while and we cuddled together, slowly waking up to more energy. So when it was time for the second workshop "The Bonobo Garden", we were perfectly ready.
The Bonobo Garden
Saskia and Ulf first showed us an excerpt from a video on the Bonobo monkeys, how they fuck all the time among each other to resolve any tension before it swells. They had laid the floor of the studio with leaves and branches. They talked about what bonobos eat and they suggested we try and feel like bonobos for about an hour. They gave us baskets of tropical fruit. And then it all started. We took the mangoes and papayas. We started eating them like monkeys do, we started smearing them over our faces. We then began sharing them with one another, feeding them into other people’s mouths. Clothes started flying off. Fruit smearing and licking went on on every body part. The leaves on the floor stuck to skins, mixed with fruit fleshes. Lots of grunting also. Every once in a while we would all go into loud screeching screams as if collectively trying to scare off some unseen enemy. By then we were about 30 naked persons left crawling on the floor, all over each other, licking skins, pussies and dicks, sharing fruit, and never speaking just staring at one another and grunting like bonobos do…My arm got crushed and stuck under a pile of bodies, someone’s leg got also twisted in the process ( no serious harm, though…). There was no choosing partners, just enjoying the animal impulse of revelling in naked flesh.
No need to say: I just loved it! I felt raw and untamed, totally sensual, sharing an animal vibe with all the others. The nudity smeared with fruit, twigs and leaves was very exciting, very sensual. I loved how everyone involved played along. Great regressive fun!
After that we were exhausted…
We went out for a bite to eat in a kino-restaurant. We were laughing so hard and loud that we were asked to leave because we were disturbing the screening happening in the next room.
Exhibitionism for the Shy
Back to the studio we all stayed together for the second round of Maggie’s workshop "Exhibitionism for the Shy". She handled this again with the utmost elegance and daring sense of provocation. Once again total silence and respect filled the studio as people came to the center of this circle to show themselves. A blond woman undressed in a very simple straightforward way and showed her pussy without moving , sitting with her legs apart and slowly turning 360 degrees so everyone could see. A young man also undressed, pulled up his genitals and showed his crotch as if it was a woman’s pussy. A girl, tall and strong, pulled down her underwear, bent forward and displayed her anus, spreading her buttocks apart so it could be better exposed… By then everyone was loosing more and more of their natural inhibitions. In different corners of the studio, on the high beds or the low sofas, naked couples were resting, some were cutting up clothes, others were softly having sex… Total freedom respect and acceptance were in the air. More and more people did not bother keeping their clothes on any longer.
We ended by holding hands in the circle and bowing to ourselves.
Flight of Fantasy
We then went outside to another space for Maggie Tapert’s other class called "Flight of Fantasy".
There we had to choose a partner or be chosen by one. We could then use this partner in any way we wanted, in any fantasy we wished. He or she could not say anything nor resist.
I chose Eric, Kai’s friend. He is a beautiful red haired man. I blindfolded him and totally undressed him. I then totally undressed too. There was a pile of clothes, hats, shoes on the floor that we could choose from. I took a long black leather coat and put it on him. His white skin, his red hair and the black leather of the coat over his naked body totally turned me on. He stood still. After pinching and biting him I made him lie down on his stomach. I set the coat around him, uncovering his ass. I walked slowly over him, stepping on his ass and back. I turned him around and walked again carefully over his dick, thighs, belly and shoulders. I loved his silence and acceptance. All around us couples were engaged in their own fantasy games. I have no idea what they did, I did not look, I was too immersed in my own play with Eric. Every once in a while there was a scream, there were heavy sighs and rough breathing…
Maggie broke this game after about 20 minutes. We recovered for a while. Then the active people from the preceding game lined up all in one line. The receptive ones lined up in front of us. It was now their turn to choose a partner for their own fantasy. And there was no objection nor resistance accepted once again.
I was chosen by a tall German girl. She blindfolded me. She undressed me and dressed me with what I discovered later was a gold velvet jacket. She guided me to a far corner of the room and she laid me down on my stomach. She processed to scratching me slowly with her nails down my back, very slowly. I loved it! Then she went down my ass and then my legs. But when she did it on the sole of my feet I went completely crazy. It is my most sensitive body part; most often I cannot stand being touched there it is too much…In this situation I was not supposed to say anything. I therefore had no choice but go through it. With every move she took of her nails diving into my skin under there and slowly moving, I could not help but scream like a mad man. It was both unbearable and delightful. My reactions turned her on, I think, become she became more and more creative with her nails…and I kept screaming…
I was both relieved and sorry when Maggie called the end of this part of the game.
Salon of Kinbaku
We ate something light and went back to the main studio. There people were setting up the stage for the "Salon of Kinbaku", a traditional Japanese bondage ceremony by Nawashi Murakawa. I was torn between watching this and listening to Peter Banki in his "Poetry of Listening" class.
The setting of the bondage ritual was so beautiful, the 2 geishas to be bonded were so cute, naked in their amazing silk kimonos, I decided to stay for this. As the ceremony started, lots of people took Styrofoam boards and drawing paper to sketch the scene, as in an art class. I stood behind Maggie cuddled in an armchair between Yorgos in drag and a straight young man caressing her. I slowly massaged her skull as the master skilfully tied up sophisticated knots around the geishas. Traditional Japanese flute music was played all along and incense burnt. I then sat down between Maggie’s legs and gave her a dick and hand roll on foot massage as the show went on…On the edges of the room in the shade, other persons were being massaged, others were making love, or conversing. I ended up playing with Yorgos feet because his feet are very funny and expressive.
When we all went to the restaurant to eat, Esther Maria and I could not stand the day long accumulated sexual frustration any longer: we went to the large handicapped toilet and had wild sex right there on the floor. We felt great afterwards …
Later that night I went with other friends at the Cocktail d’Amore Party but Daniel and I did not find it sexual enough. So we went to Ajpnia, which is a great sensual sex club in Shöneberg, and had very good sex there… Then we slept.
Smell, Taste, Touch
The last day I only had the morning to enjoy the workshop because I had to fly back to Paris in the afternoon.
I took Felis Ruckert’s class "Smell, Taste, Touch". He explained that he had read a book that made it clear that we have different levels of smell:
- the conscious one, through our nose system that recognizes and identifies smells but also gets used to them and forgets them
- the unconscious one that picks up pheromones in particular
We therefore went on to play games were we tried to use our smelling abilities to connect with others only through their smell. It was very intimate and actual fun. I had in particular a very connecting exchange with a straight guy, sniffing each other’s neck, hair and armpits. Then another sniffing game developed into luscious embrace and deep kissing encounter with Marie, a sexy young French woman. When I told her I loved all the jungle smells in her hair, she answered that she had sex all night and had not washed her hair after. That totally electrified me!
When the exercises were over, the air was super charged for all of us in the room.
I went to sit down next to Esther Maria in the circle. She proceeded right away to licking me and biting me as the debriefing started. After a few minutes I was on my back, my legs in the air, with Esther Maria licking my ass as if it was candy…Total exhibitionism and pleasure, no shame left whatsoever…The workshop was about smell, taste and touch after all…Other people in the circle also kept on playing sexually, unable to willingly end this game…
Practice of Strip Tease
I then only had a little more than an hour left before I had to take off for the airport.
Back at the main studio, Esther Maria and I were totally craved for one last sex session together. The "Practice of Strip Tease" workshop had just started. There was no space left on the beds nor on the sofas: there were people having sex everywhere. One couple was particularly hectic and loud in their lovemaking as the class tried to focus on quiet deep breathing exercises…
Esther Maria and I squeezed ourselves on a bed next to a guy with two girls. We undressed and proceeded to satisfy our sexual hunger for each other. But obviously, we too started making too much disruptive noise for the class. Felix and Maggie, who had asked us to stay as close to them as possible so they could watch us having sex, had to come and pat us on the shoulder saying that unfortunately we were disturbing the class. We jumped down and went into the smaller studio next to the big space. There we were free to let go our wildest instincts and let our screaming go crazy. We were very quickly joined by the "hectic" couple which had also been "expelled" for too much noisemaking.
This was my last moment at xplore. I then had to jump into my clothes, leaving my beautiful Esther Maria, kissed and hugged Felix and Maggie and sneaked out during class, as everyone was sensually undressing for the finale of the striptease workshop to the sound of sexy music…I just had a final glimpse to see that the pink guy in drag seemed to be the best…
In the taxi and in the plane I could still feel the smell of Esther Maria’s body fluids all over my face and body. I carried it back to Paris with me as the precious trace of this most amazing week end at xplore.
As I write these lines a few days later in a very quiet, soothing vacation house far away, I feel how deep an impression these hours spent in such a free spirit have made on me. I have opened new spaces in myself. I have met audacious creative people that are not afraid of exploring their own uncharted sexual territories. I feel I belong now to a family of pioneers. I am energized by it all. And I can’t wait for the next xplore to happen next year.
See you there!
Marcus
July 29th, 2010
1) Xplore:
The Idea:
Xplore presents unusual individuals who play with, work with, and explore the phenomenon of sexuality. Individuals who have developed amazing techniques and rituals on their way. These forms are as varied as sexuality itself. Some are therapeutic in nature, some emerge from aesthetic intentions, others are spiritual quests or searches for borderline experiences. Most of them just aim for pure pleasure.
Their common ground is playfulness, communication, creativity and expansion beyond the traditional relationship of the couple. They represent a different sexual culture. They are art with body and soul.
Xplore hosts presenters from all over the planet who will teach short workshops, giving insight into their special fields.
Xplore wishes to provide hints, ideas and images and to promote an intelligent, open-minded and playful approach to sex.
But most of all, xplore wishes to bring together those who think and love unconventionally. To share and to learn.
Welcome to our playground.
The Concept:
Evolution – Levels of Increased Decadence:
The seventh edition of xplore is dedicated to the topic of "evolution" – in a biological, but also a societal sense. We will examine biology, the diverse animalistic influences on life and love, and our kinship to the sexuality of other lifeforms.
What is the biological mechanism of our sexuality? What archaic laws determine the function of eyes, mouth, nose and ears, skin and genitals? How are smell, taste and touch involved?
History, too, will be addressed in several workshops, in the form of sexual culture and traditions. And perhaps we will be able to glimpse the future, and contemplate the path that alternative loving and a constantly expanding idea of sexuality will take.
What is socially relevant, what is political in sexual expression? Can we, as sexual explorers, give new impulses? For an affirmation of sensuality, but also against its stagnation? For the lifting of bans, but also against half-hearted liberality? Against anaesthetising our touch but against touchiness? For a peaceful world, but also against a stigmatizing of aggressive impulses?
Seven years of xplore have enriched us, have let a constantly expanding network of friends and acquaintances emerge. In the past year, we had a record number of visitors with about 280 participants from all over the world. At schwelle 7, xplore has found a permanent venue, where the spirit of xplore is continued year-round, and new things are tried.
Felix Ruckert, Berlin 2010
schwelle 7:
- The focus of schwelle 7 is experimental body work and body research, above all in the direction of play, magic and gentle madness. The artistic principle is juxtaposition: the energy, which is released when heterogeneous elements are mixed together, without attempting to smooth out their differences. Juxtaposition as a formal operation of synchronicity. Secret connections, which suddenly become visible and then meaningful. Random collaborations and collages. Grace, which arises from fragments playing together. Absurdity, irony, instability.
- schwelle 7 ( schwelle = threshold) is a 500 square meters venue in Berlin-Wedding, that organizes workshops, performances and parties on the threshold between Art and BDSM (Bondage Discipline Sado Masochism)
- The director , Felix Ruckert, is a dancer and choreographer, who develops experimental forms of contemporary dance. His work is often inspired by elements of BDSM-Play.
- schwelle 7 organizes primarily workshops on Dance, Choreography, Performance and Body Art that focus on the practice of performing. We also propose workshops dedicated to practical and technical aspects of SM-Play, but often also look into theoretical, esthetic or philosophical issues related to BDSM. schwelle 7 tries to examine connections, parallels and gateways between these two worlds.
- schwelle 7 is not an SM location in the usual sense of the term. Despite the radicality of some of our research, we try to maintain openness and flexibility in our thinking and acting.
- Live Performances are a specific focus of schwelle 7. We produce and program them on location here. We have a special interest in long duration pieces and participatory performances, as for example United Kingdom, a long duration role play conceived for a large group of active participants, that creates an entire universe based on consensual hierarchy.
- schwelle 7 strongly identifies with the idea of art as celebration. We experiment with projects on the border between performance, party and happening; examples are the monthly full moon play party, the Aristocratic of Desire, the Tango evening Salon Mala Fama and the Bowen Lounge.
More information at: http://www.schwelle7.de/
2) « From Tongue to Tail »:
Each of us carries billions of years of an ongoing global process, a sequenced continuum of life on Earth. Our animal nature and evolution (its history and potency) are always with us – no matter how identified we are with human law, morals and social code.
We are basically fluid beings that arrived on land. All living processes owe their lineage to the movement of water. Our implicate, pre-existent memory, beginning with the first cell, lies in the mysterious, aquatic deep.
Amongst other modes of communication, water communicates through movement, particularly undulating wave motion, spirals and whirls. With movements, the resonance of sounds and the dexterity of breath, we engage the ancient history stored in the water of our tissues, dissolving constraint and welcoming the liberation of the entire person at every level.
Through sensate diving into our midline / spine, which reaches from tongue to tail, we begin an extraordinary awakening to the fullness of what it means to be alive. This fullness produces a highly erotic state that engages the entire body, which in turn feels very nourishing and satisfying. We connect to our passion and fierceness, while being receptive to the dynamics of the surrounding context. We enter Eros as the climate for health.
And we can experience the interconnection of our own origins with the largest currents of all orga(ni)smic life, ultimately layered into the intricacies of human form.
The tongue functions as the "higher octave" of the spinal column. It also connects us to our reptilian history still needing water (saliva) to "live in". It accesses a field before our human story began. Developmentally, it is preverbal.
The tongue and the soft pallet are a centrepiece of Eastern spiritual traditions. The tongue acts as a catalyst for all the soft tissue. The more activity is in the soft tissue, the more movement variation is in the tongue.
The ultimate wisdom of the tongue and tail is revealed in the re-enactment of the Uroborus / Ouroborus, the ancient symbol depicting a serpent swallowing its own tail. The serpent swallowing its tail is describing unified consciousness. It is C.C. Jung’s "Mysterium Coniunctionis" (Mystery of the Conjunction), a fractal of the act of creation, with which we can come into resonance.
berlin 
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