Dean Walsh and Andrew Batt-Rawden will commence this workshop with a series of personal disclosures and experiential insights as survivors of childhood sexual abuse / rape. They will discuss how their artforms (dance and music) have played a role in their sexual healing in both public and private spaces. They will discuss their more recent combined explorations into creative sexual ritual and the role of kink as empowering play through deep togetherness, respect, tenderness, trust and addressing feelings of shame and/or inauthenticity of self.

Both men draw from sophisticated creative methods used for choreography and music composition which they have used to inform sexual exploration and ritual and continue to explore this approach together, finding they possess profound healing qualities and help with some effects of childhood sexual violation.

Fear is not the opposite of courage. In fact, very often the two go together. Often we are not even aware that we are frightened of something, or the extent to which fear is in the driver's seat in so many important aspects of our lives. Fear is not necessarily bad, it is there to protect us, but sometimes the protection prevents us from taking beautiful risks.

An audience participative performance installation

Concept by Christine Borch

Wax play is a form of sensual play involving warm or hot wax usually dripped from candles or ladled onto a person's naked skin. Paraffin therapy is a veritable way to speed healing and soothe muscle and joint pain. It soothes and moisturizes the skin by increasing the blood supply to the area being treated. It opens pores, increases circulation, and promotes a sense of calm in the patient. Paraffin therapy reduces pain and stiffness around joints by removing excess fluid from surrounding tissue while providing lubrication.

One of the most profound and intimate experiences is to be wounded and unable to forgive. The inability to forgive may not be something that is simply chosen. Something very powerful continues to say ‘no’, even if one would like to say ‘yes’, to forgive the other, believing that it will make things easier, lighter and better from now on. In certain cases even after one has said ‘yes’ and meant ‘yes’, the ‘no’ insists. 

Rough Body Play allows us to experience our own strength and “power” in a particularly acute way. Despite its obvious physical aspect, Rough Body Play also features a strong psychological component. However, it derives its particular fascination from its unique “carnal” appeal and its use of certain symbols of violence. In their “Rough Body Play”, Frank & Sheila turn martial arts into arts of pleasure and kink, thereby creating a protected safe space in which to experiment with such fantasies.

What is it with spanking? Why does it have such allure? Why does it hold such a special spot in the heart of the kink-identified and mainstream lover alike?

Pornography and dating apps play an increasingly large role in the sex lives of many people today in Australia and around the world. What are we really looking for when we go online? And how does it effect us? And the way treat people? What does going online teach us about sex?

In this workshop, we will create a bordello, where participants can chose to be either clients or service providers. Juliette Dragon will be the madam, as in real life, where she is the madam of L'Ecole des Filles de Joie in Paris. For the workshop we'll be using monopoly money.