Bondage Soup Test Kitchen

About Test Kitchen

Bondage Soup Test Kitchen is a 6-month multidimensional program for experienced rope practitioners who are ready to explore what happens after they have built a strong foundation.

Test Kitchen is not graduate school or an advanced tier of Bondage Soup. It is another room in the same house, created for a different kind of learning.

Over 6 months, we will take familiar structures apart, look more closely at why they work, explore different approaches, and develop a deeper understanding of the choices available to us. The goal is to become more intentional and confident using the rope we know in different ways.

This is where we experiment.

This is where we refine.

This is where we create.

The Curriculum

Test Kitchen includes 5 months of multidimensional curriculum followed by a 6th month dedicated to graduation.

The 6-month Test Kitchen curriculum is:

Month 1: Observation and Feedback

Month 2: Takate Kote Deep Dive

Month 3: Tying in 3D and Working with Multiple Points

Month 4: Hashira

Month 5: Semenawa

Month 6: Graduation: Teach a Class

Each intensive gives us a different way to investigate rope. We will build on the foundation participants have, introduce new information and approaches, and create time to work with that material before deciding what, if anything, participants want to carry into their own practice.

Test Kitchen also encourages the cohort to look beyond the curriculum. Bring questions into the room, seek out other perspectives and approaches, investigate where your knowledge comes from, and be willing to discover that someone else may approach the same thing differently.

How We Learn

Test Kitchen is a structured, instructor-led program. Each intensive has a defined curriculum and learning objectives, and instructors are responsible for teaching and guiding the material.

Throughout the program, instructors will establish the foundation of what we are teaching through talking points, theory, technical information, and discussion. We will then demonstrate that material in rope so the cohort can see how the concepts are applied.

The cohort will have time to work with the new material, with instructor guidance and feedback. This gives the cohort an opportunity to understand the material, recognize how it differs from what they already do, and consider what those differences change.

The cohort is not expected to simply reproduce the instructors’ rope or adopt every approach that is taught. Once the cohort has had an opportunity to understand and work with the material, they can make intentional decisions about what they want to adapt, incorporate, approach differently, or leave unchanged.

The goal is not for everyone to leave tying the same way. The goal is to understand more about the choices available to us, what those choices change, and how to make informed decisions for the people, bodies, circumstances, and experiences in front of us.

Tying Partnerships

Applicants enter Test Kitchen as established tying partnerships. Tops remain in the tying role and bottoms remain in the being-tied role throughout the 6-month program. Test Kitchen does not allow partners to switch roles.

Both people are active participants in the learning process. The knowledge, observations, communication, experience, and perspective of both roles are important to the work we do together.

Attendance and Missed Intensives

Test Kitchen is a 6-month in-person program, and each partnership is expected to attend all 6 intensives together.

We understand that illness, emergencies, and unexpected circumstances happen. If you need to miss an intensive, communicate with us as soon as possible.

Both people in the tying partnership are valued as active participants in Test Kitchen. The learning belongs to the partnership, and both perspectives are important to the work we do together. If one partner is unable to attend an intensive, the partnership is considered to have missed that intensive, even if the other partner attends.

The partner who is available is asked to attend and participate in the parts of the intensive that are accessible to them. Their attendance, however, does not replace the partnership’s required make-up.

Any missed intensive requires a make-up class. It is the partnership’s responsibility to arrange the required make-up with an instructor. Make-up classes are held virtually and are offered at an additional cost. Both partners are required to attend the make-up together, and the make-up must be completed before graduation.

Graduation

Test Kitchen graduation reflects the same spirit of exploration and sharing that happens throughout the 6 months.

Where Bondage Soup graduation asks participants to take what they have learned and create a performance, Test Kitchen graduation asks participants to take something they know and teach it.

Test Kitchen concludes with the graduating cohort teaching an intensive for the Bondage Soup community. Each cohort member will develop and teach a rope class as part of the Graduation Teaching Intensive.

Teaching asks us to look at our own knowledge differently. To teach something, we have to examine what we understand, decide what is important, organize that information, and communicate it clearly to others. The class does not need to be advanced or complicated. It should be something the cohort member understands, wants to explore more deeply, and is ready to share.

The Test Kitchen Graduation Teaching Intensive will be open to the Bondage Soup community. Graduates, current cohort members, instructors, GAs, and Test Kitchen participants will be invited to attend, learn, and support the graduating cohort.

Graduation gives the Test Kitchen cohort an opportunity to contribute their knowledge and perspectives back to the community while introducing and celebrating the graduating cohort within the larger Bondage Soup community.

Test Kitchen begins by asking questions about what we know. Graduation asks us to decide what we understand well enough to share.

About Bondage Soup

Test Kitchen remains rooted in the principles established in the Bondage Soup Recipe Book. Communication, consent, safety, technical proficiency, adaptability, accountability, creative expression, and learning from different bodies, partners, styles, and perspectives continue to shape how we work together.

Bondage Soup asks participants to learn patterns as taught while developing the proficiency necessary to eventually make informed adaptations. Test Kitchen creates space to investigate what those informed adaptations can look like.

Our Values

Curiosity

We remain open to what we do not know. We ask questions, seek perspectives beyond our own, examine where our knowledge comes from, and stay interested in how other people approach rope.

Adaptability

We value having more than one approach available and understanding when and why to use it. Rope should be able to respond to different people, bodies, circumstances, and intentions.

Community

Test Kitchen exists within the larger Bondage Soup community, our local rope community, and the broader rope community. We value being thoughtful and responsible members of those communities. How we treat people, participate in shared spaces, and contribute to the communities around us matters.

Intentionality

We consider why we make the choices we make and how those choices affect the people we tie with. Technical skill, communication, accountability, and care are all part of practicing rope with intention.

Expectations

Test Kitchen depends on the active participation of everyone in the cohort. Both people in each tying partnership are expected to arrive ready to learn, contribute, and take responsibility for their part in the learning process.

Show Up

Attend consistently and arrive prepared to participate. Consistent attendance allows each person to fully participate in the experiences, conversations, and work of the cohort.

Practice

Continue tying together outside of Test Kitchen. The work we begin in the room needs time, repetition, and exploration between intensives. Bring what you discover, including the things that did not work, back to the cohort.

Be Accountable

Remain accountable to yourself, your tying partner, and the cohort. Communicate clearly, respect boundaries, know your limits, take responsibility for your choices, and contribute to an environment where other people can learn.

Support the Cohort

Your participation affects the learning environment for everyone in the cohort. Support the people learning beside you, respect differences in bodies, identities, experiences, roles, and approaches, and contribute to a space where everyone has meaningful opportunities to participate and grow.

Price of Admission

We believe strong communities are built when people show up, participate, share knowledge, take responsibility for their actions, and contribute to something that matters to them. The Bondage Soup community is grounded in consent, accountability, inclusion, respect, and care.

There is no tuition or ticket price to participate in Test Kitchen. We are willing to do the work if you are willing to do the work. The price of admission is your time, effort, participation, accountability, and willingness to contribute what you learn back to the Bondage Soup community.

Participation does come with some personal expenses. Each tying pair is responsible for the rope, equipment, and accessories they need for the program, as well as their contribution to shared potluck meals. Required make-up classes, when applicable, are also offered at an additional cost.

The Bondage Soup Community

Graduates of Bondage Soup and graduates of Test Kitchen become part of the larger Bondage Soup community.

We are committed to a Bondage Soup community where different identities, bodies, abilities, backgrounds, experiences, roles, partnerships, and rope lineages are welcomed and respected. We recognize that people enter rope through different paths and participate in different ways. We work to reduce barriers, support meaningful participation, and create opportunities for people to learn, contribute, and bring their own knowledge and perspectives into the community.

Graduation is not the end of participation. Graduates are encouraged to continue practicing, sharing knowledge, learning, mentoring, attending Soup Kitchen, contributing to future cohorts, and bringing their own experiences and perspectives back into the community.

Bondage Soup builds the foundation. Test Kitchen gives us room to experiment, refine, and create. Soup Kitchen keeps us learning together.

Different paths. One community.

Applying to Test Kitchen

You do not need to have graduated from the 12-month Bondage Soup program to apply to Test Kitchen.

Test Kitchen is for experienced rope practitioners who have the technical foundation necessary to participate fully in the curriculum, regardless of where or how that foundation was developed.

Applicants apply as a tying partnership, and that partnership must have been tying together consistently for at least 6 months before applying.

Applications and Cohort Size

Test Kitchen accepts applications from up to 12 tying partnerships. From those applicants, 4 tying partnerships will be invited to join the 6-month Test Kitchen cohort.

The small cohort is intentional. Limiting the cohort to 4 tying partnerships gives everyone time and space to work, ask questions, try different approaches, troubleshoot, and receive individual attention throughout each intensive.

Technical proficiency is one part of the selection process. We also consider how each partnership communicates and works together, what they hope to explore, how they engage with learning and feedback, how they engage with the local rope community, and their interest in contributing to the Bondage Soup community.

Final invitations are based on the complete application, proficiency demonstration, and interview.

The Application Process

1. Apply

Both people in the tying partnership apply to Test Kitchen. There is one application for the person tying and a separate application for the person being tied.

The applications give us an opportunity to learn about each person individually as well as the partnership you have built together. We want to understand your rope experience, your current practice, how you work together, and what each of you hopes to explore in Test Kitchen.

2. Show Proficiency

All applicants will complete a proficiency test as a tying partnership. You will demonstrate a repeatable suspension sequence that includes at least 3 distinctly different positions connected through transitions.

Choose a sequence that is already part of your practice and that you can perform consistently together. We are not looking for the most difficult, creative, or impressive suspension. We are looking for a strong foundation and familiarity working together in suspension.

During the proficiency, we will be looking at rope handling and fluency, harness structure, tie-ins and lock-offs, upline placement and control, transitions, balance and center of mass, sustainability, multiple-line management, communication between partners, and a controlled descent.

The proficiency is not about whether you tie the way we do in Bondage Soup. Different harnesses, techniques, and approaches are welcome. We want to see that your partnership has the foundational suspension skills and experience necessary to fully participate in Test Kitchen.

3. Interview

Applicants who demonstrate the required proficiency will be invited to interview. The interview gives us an opportunity to talk with both people about your experience, your partnership, your goals, how you learn and work together, and whether Test Kitchen is the right learning environment for you.

Completing the application process does not guarantee an invitation to join Test Kitchen. Bondage Soup graduates and applicants from outside the program go through the same selection process.

Program Timeline

Test Kitchen runs from February through July.

December: Applications

Applications open for tying partnerships interested in joining the upcoming Test Kitchen cohort.

January: Proficiency and Interviews

Applicants complete the required proficiency demonstration. Partnerships who demonstrate the required proficiency will be invited to interview.

Late January: Invitations

Invitations are offered to 4 tying partnerships.

2027 Intensive Dates

February 21, 2027
Observation and Feedback
1:00–6:00 pm

March 21, 2027
Takate Kote Deep Dive
1:00–6:00 pm

April 18, 2027
Tying in 3D and Working with Multiple Points
1:00–6:00 pm

May 16, 2027
Hashira
1:00–6:00 pm

June 13, 2027
Semenawa
1:00–6:00 pm

July 18, 2027
Graduation: The Test Kitchen Teaching Intensive