Drop in Day – Oct 3

A lovely day with familiar faces and of course, interesting conversation.

A small group this Sunday but a lively bunch nonetheless. I arrived and was immediately offered a fork and told to dig in to the community poutine. That was a nice surprise lol, and a delicious one!

Petal and Frank were there to represent the ALCC-CCVA and offer info to those who came by. We are working on expanding our materials and offering more info that people can simply take home.

Thanks to those of you who dropped by to visit us and to Petal and Frank for their hard work.

– C.A.

Alternative Lifestyles Workshop @ Club Sin – Oct 1

While we had a small group, it was nice to hear share so many personal stories about our workshop subject.

Rarely do I get to meet a F2M cross dresser (biological female who cross dresses as a male). It was so nice to discuss the differences and similarities among genders, cross dressers, and kinksters alike. I meant to invite her to our next CD meeting… I better get on that!!! If you are reading this, please check our schedule and come!

As well, it is becoming more and more common that people are choosing and living healthy and positive poly relationships (Polyamory). I had the opportunity to listen to someone talk about his experiences in his own poly relationships and offer his perspective about making it work.

 

So in the end, though I was the one giving the workshop, there was more of the group teaching and sharing and myself listening, than me teaching at all.

It is interesting to note how much people really know about alternative lifestyles. Now imagine how sharing that knowledge with others helps educate people and reduce the misconceptions and fears about these communities!

– C.A.

Mummify me BABY!!! – Sept 28

It seems like the 28th of each month is becoming mummification day lol… wonder if I could get that to spread around the world? International Mummification Day? Whatever!

Thanks to everyone who attended tonight. Especially Glovedsub, who volunteered to be my demo model and was marevlous, and also to Danny A. Godbout, contestant for Mr. Leather Montreal 2011, for bringing a great deal of new people to the ALCC-CCVA from the gay community. There will be more to say about initiatives Danny is organizing for the ALCC-CCVA!!!

Well, we had lots of different preferences when it came to the “type” of platic to wrap with. I am happy to see that people are really out there trying things and enjoying different aspects of BDSM play and mummification play. It was actually great to hear the variety of reasons some enjoyed the bondage tape from sex shops, or plastic wrap from the grocery store. I have already stated my preference in my previous Mummification blog, but after tonight, I have decided to try going back to the other types of PVC wrap that I did’t enjoy to experience it with a new frame of mind and suggestions from the group. Thank you to the lovely male trio who offered their advice!

Of course we covered the usual topics of safety, varieties, and use of mummification and mummification wrap. We talked about the different strategies, time periods for full enclosure mummification and trust. I even had the chance to take advantage of poor Glovedsub all wrapped up on the floor by tickling him, squishing him, and stealing his credit cards lol (JK).

At the end of the workshop everyone had an opportunity to try out mummification, both giving and receiveing. We even had a chance to snap a photo or two! Thanks to those who allowed us to capture the moment with a photograph for our blog, much appreciated

– Contessa Alura

Contessa’s Breath Play & Dunter’s Strangulation Play – Sept 22

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Since there are many people out there engaging or experimenting in high-risk BDSM activities, Dunter and I felt it was important to offer workshops that explored them, the risks,  and consequences in an attempt to make them safer. With a bit of knowledge and some strategies for reducing the risk instead of increasing it, people could be more prepared to deal with emergency situations and also practice better/safer techniques. We also wanted to be clear that not everyone is capable of carrying out some of these types of edge play, that it is may not be appropriate to their personality, coordination, observation, etc.

It takes a very keen sense of observation and connection to your partner when you are doing breath play. The risk is possible death, the risk is injury and that is NOT what you want. It should be a high intense activity that brings pleasure in the end.

We decided to do back to back workshops. Mine on Air Restriction, Dunter’s on Circulation Restriction (strangulation).

The breath play workshop was awesome. Kinky K, my sexy assistant, allowed me to demonstrate various types and techniques of breath play. We demonstrated re-breathing, suffocation with plastic bags, saran wrap and simply the hand. We discussed the signs of needing air, what is too long, how to determine the length of time one can be held without breathing before it is dangerous. I physically put Kinky K in all the situations to show what it looks like so people see his reactions, his body and eyes, his movements.

We had time to do a quick activity so everyone had the chance to learn a bit about their own breathing. I had everyone take out a clock and time themselves on how long they could hold their breath. We did that three times in a row and took a moment to reflect on their times.

I had a really great tie and positive feedback about the workshop.

Thanks to everyone who attended!

– Contessa Alura

… Some of the photos from Dunter’s wokshop are posted below. We hope to have a posting about his workshop soon.

Wax Play with Contessa Alura – Sept 21

I’m really impressed with the turn-out. There were some new faces in my workshop and new comers to wax play itself, and even out-of-towners!

The workshop went very well. My sexy and very wonderful demo model Karl, was very responsive during our demonstraion and provided his perpectivr on his sensations offering a better understanding about the subject. Often it is only the instructor tat explains the how and what to do but when we are doing activities/play, that involve two people, the person feeling what is being done offers a very important point of view.

I had wonderful feedback and personally touching comments given to me about the workshop but also about the ALCC-CCVA in general. This was to the effect of how professional this person felt our organization was and how much this person apprecaiated that suh a community effort and organization for alternative lifestyles even existed. It really feels good to hear those things because it takes many people and a GREAT deal of effort to make a centre grow. It just felt like this person really understood that and it was rewarding for all of us to hear!

A speacial thank you to the wonderful gentelman from Winnipeg who spent time with us when he was only in town for two weeks. He will be missed!

What an amazing evening!

– Contessa Alura

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Another DID – Sept 12

Yet another suprise turn-out for drop-in-day!

We had many lovely folks come by ad spend time hanging out with us, chatting about all kinds of things. There was a great deal of conversation about the BDSM community in Montreal, more the English group dealing mostly with public events. People seemed unanimously disappointed in the events being offered and seemed to be saying they want more private underground play parties. They were saying that the public events are more just social gatherings for dress and that the play doesn’t reflect the old school or long ago nature of true BDSM play. Some said and others agreed that they felt that in a more private context people could really feel free to get in that “space”.

We had a few new people which is always wonderful. One, a lovely lady from Toronto that has just joined our community and an older gentleman who found out about us at the MFW.

There is a very special mention I would like to make and that is of the incredible generosity of someone who dropped in and donated $500 to the help support the centre! We extend a deep and heartfelt THANK YOU to the person who offered this to us! You have no idea how much your donation helped us!

Great seeing everyone, glad you all came out and see you next time.

Remember this is our last day in the Joytoyz location… we are moving to the room next door #417!

– Contessa Alura

Beginners Flogging Workshop – Sept 7

I had a small group for his workshop, but a very enthusiastic one!

We looked at the various types of floggers and what they do, how the material of floggers change the feel and force of the impact, and how to move the body and wrists.

We talked about starting soft an incorporating sensuality in flogging. I often see people begin wailing on others or starting rough. If you like that, great, but there’s a lot to be said about starting slowly and softly to establish comfort and trust and then progressing to hard. Enjoy the journey I always say.

We talked about safety and areas NOT to flog with too much force. We covered warm-ups and getting the skin ready for flogging.

The students had a chance to practice some of the techniques we covered such as finding their wrists, and aim, by hitting the backs of chairs. Then we moved on to people. A big thank you to Glovesub for being our fabulous demo model and braving the newbie floggers. I was amazed to see how quickly some people progress and how others are truly naturals and just get it right away.

We will be doing an advanced flogging next month, learning how to Florentine (double handed flogging) and as well another basic course for those of you who missed this one.

– Contessa Alura

Fabulous Polyamory Workshop!!! – Sept 11

A surprisingly BIG group for this workshop, with 11 people!

What great questions, great feedback.

Something I particularly enjoyed about this group was that everyone was coming from different perspectives. There were a few simply curious, others whom had pervious poly relationships that hadn’t worked out and who were there to seek advice or strategies for the future, and ohers still were questionsing from a D/s (dominant/submissive) perspective.

One person in particular spoke about a some of his own experiences and that started a great opening up and sharing in the room and encouraging other people to offer their stories.

I really appreciated ho everyone was involved in some way or another, it was really just great!

It was asked by many that we offer a more advanced Poly workshop to help answer specific questions that could not be addressed in a basic and informational workshop such as this one. We covered mostly terminology and an introduction to Polyamory. It seems there is more knowledge about the subject than I thought.

I know this wonderful triad (three person poly relationship) that is very close and living happily together that I hope they will agree to come and share their experiences with us. And then I just met this awesome quad (four person poly relationship) from Edmonton that would be great at offering a workshop… we shall have to see what will happen. It would be great to have a panel of people who can take questions and answer them from direct experience, especially if they are actively making their relationships work and doing well. I feel others would benefit from that kind of knowledge.

You’ll have to stay posted!

P.S. We were very fortunate that one of the attendees from this workshop decided to join our team as an official translator. We welcome Xavier aboard!!!

– Contessa Alura