About

Who we are

We are Cati & Boris. Together, we have been performing as Koi Ku Nawa on stages, at festivals and at club events since 2015. Our name comes from Japanese: koi stands for love, ku for pain and suffering, nawa for rope. For us, this has become a credo — rope can be tender, hard, silent, demanding, vulnerable, beautiful and uncomfortable. Often all at once.

We started with a strongly visual Shibari aesthetic, for a long time also with traditional kimono imagery. Over the years our work has changed noticeably. Today it is more reduced, more direct, and closer to a real session than to a classic stage performance.

What remains is the core: two people, one rope, trust, control, surrender, and the emotional tension that arises when all of this becomes visible in front of an audience.

What we do

Koi Ku Nawa is not a choreographed rope show. We show live sessions — raw, controlled, physical and real. Our performances emerge in the moment and follow no fixed dramaturgy. Music, light, space, audience and the day's energy all flow into what happens on stage.

Our style is shaped by functional rope, a reduced aesthetic and a connection between Shibari, BDSM, fetish and gothic. We work with rope, body, pain, closeness, power dynamics and the silence between moments.

Depending on the event, a session can start slow and sacred, condense into something industrial, or shift into a hard, direct energy. What it never is: performed.

Our attitude

For us, rope is not just a stage prop. It is a tool that makes responsibility, trust and intensity visible. We do not show a perfect fantasy — we show a real connection under real tension.

Safety, consent and clear communication are the foundation. Not as marketing terms, but as the prerequisite that makes intensity possible in the first place.

We are as much at home on large stages as in small clubs. Our aim is not to be loud — it is that one moment when a room goes silent because everyone feels that nothing is being acted out.

As of 2026

Since the first show, more than 50 stage performances have come together. A full overview is in the portfolio; upcoming shows are listed under dates.

Get in touch

For bookings, collaborations or interviews: drop us a line at info@koikunawa.com or use the contact page.