Power – Dominance and submission with Andy Buru

This workshop is for you, if you…

… are open to throwing your assumptions on BDSM and power dynamics over board.

… are interested in exploring eros in a slow, mindful way.

… want to feel more with less.

… want to explore your dominant side.

… are looking for inspiration for your play.

Important notes:

This workshop is for individuals. You’ll pair up in exercises and also join trios. You can always decline or sit out an exercise.

It is a sex-positive workshop, not a sex-mandatory one.

Also, the workshop is in English. No translation will be provided.

Description:

Andy Buru‘s three-day experience on exploring POWER has been attracting international audiences since 2019. While the theme has remained the same, the structure is constantly evolving. The group processes focus on the philosophical, emotional, or spiritual aspects of the eros, not detailed teaching of techniques.

Refugium founders Christian and Jay attended POWER in 2025, and left forever changed. „I came to explore my dominant side,“ says Jay, „but discovered way more about my submission.“

„Power is the best workshop on BDSM dynamics I‘ve ever attended.“

– Christian, Refugium Founder

How does one explore power in the context of BDSM?

Andy Buru will guide the group through a series of exercises designed to explore the facets of conscious power exchange. Core principles are of course consent. Andy will show how you can establish consent for the particular exercise with nonverbal communication. It‘s always clear if we are in play or outside of it.

This invites slowness. Feeling more with less. POWER does not teach the flashy techniques of BDSM but instead helps you find your inner truth.

For details see the „Freedoms & Responsibilities“ section below.

„In a way, it’s like a game of edging – coitus reservatus – to retain the energy within oneself – to ride the high, higher and higher – with no goal other than to remain in the power play. If I, as the dominant, would instantly reach for my ultimate desire, our scene would end shortly – even prematurely, I would argue. If the pain and pleasure intensified too rapidly, or if I would unearth every fetish and fantasy I ever had, basically spurting the last drops of life, metaphorically speaking, of course – no more mystery would remain.“

But the temptation is always there, taunting us to lose control. Andy will show you glimpses of how you can attempt to remain, „teasing myself indefinitely in these ritualic plays of the esoteric eros. How can I do that as the dominant without losing my vulnerability? Without numbing out my emotions, without losing my deviant creativity, without burning out as a give-always-and-only kink dispenser. We relentlessly keep exploring this paradox of power, and that exploration is my invitation to you.“

Timetable

Friday – 2pm to 10pm

Saturday – 10am to 7pm

Ritualistic Play Party – 8pm to 10pm at Refugium Divine

Sunday – 10am to 6pm

Each day will have a flexible lunch break.

What to bring:

• comfortable clothes for moving on the floor

• elegant, fetishistic and/or hedonistic clothes for moving in hierarchies

• clothes for being messy, or a readiness to be more naked

• a tool for stingy pain, maybe your grandma’s wooden kitchen spoon to an artisan-made 24-plait kangaroo leather single-tail

• pen and paper for notetaking

Prices and Tickets:

350€

Early bird: 320€ – ends May 31st, 2026

About Andy

Born in Sweden but professionally nomadic, Andy Buru spent the past twenty-five years as an owned slave, a leather daddy, a hedonist, a purist, a magician, and a princess slut.

As a young kinky boi, they spent the years of 2004 and 2005 roaming the backstreets of Kabukichö, Tokyo and learning the ropes from people like Yukinaga Max, the little/young Yukimura. Later, they discovered the Berlin-based community of Schwelle7 and Xplore, where art and sexuality intersect-and where they still teach today.

In 2017, Andy made a smooth departure from the ordinary world, ditching a career as an organisational coach at a large international tech company to dedicate their life to teaching, writing, and embodying sadomasochism as a lived research practice. Nowadays, they spend six months of the year travelling and teaching, and the other six months studying subjects such as tea, flowers, and theatre, often in the misty mountains of Kumano, Japan.

In 2024, Andy released their book Rituals and Paradoxes: The Intimacy of Belonging in Sadomasochism and Esoteric Eroticism.

You can buy it on Andy‘s website or listen to it on Spotify.

For more information on what it means to participate, please check the extended description on our website.

show less