Blog
I am so excited to share that I am publishing a book with Routledge on consent-forward, trauma-informed, psychologically safe movement pedagogy! This book is designed for dance teachers, as well as those who teach movement actors and stage combat in higher education settings.
I am well into the process of writing and am excited to share it with you- hopefully in early 2026. Stay tuned for updates.
Florida Theater on Stage’s website is currently being rebuilt. But they are posting reviews on Facebook. I was really honored by the mention of my role as both ID and choreographer on this new version of The Fantasticks currently up at Island City Stage. (so much so, you can find that quote all over this website now….).
Check it out here.
I had the honor and collaborative joy of serving as intimacy director and movement director for Lovesong at Thinking Cap Theatre in their new space in Hollywood.
South Florida Theatre Magazine review
I’m on the latest episode of The Casual Dance Teacher’s Podcast, talking with Maia Mahosky about consent-forward teaching practices in the dance studio. Let me know what you think!
Remember a few months ago when we were a finalist for the new Doris Duke Foundation’s Performing Arts and Technology Lab Cohort and Grant…
… and we are a winner!
We are excited to develop Totentanz, a new use of pose estimation and facial recognition technologies to decrease AI theft and training that occurs without choreographer and dancer consent. The project is led by Pedram Nimreezi (AI and technology), me (Dance), and Ed Talavera (Film). Learn more about the project here.
It is such a lovely honor to receive a Silver Palm, because it come from my colleagues! Congratulations to everyone making art in South Florida (it is not the easiest sometimes….), and especially to the other honorees listed here!
But I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the folks involved in these productions I am being honored for. My work only works when it supports the story and the actors can confidently embody it.
Read MoreI am so honored to have the South Florida Theatre Community offer me a Silver Palm for my Intimacy work over the last year. I am very grateful for the way the community has embraced this work.
Read MoreSince 2019, Halie Bahr, Cat Kamrath Monson, and I have been meeting and talking about ways we were/are changing our pedagogy to foster consent, autonomy, and psychological safety in western concert dance class. And that work finally has a home!
Psychological Safety in the Western Concert Dance Technique Class. Video essay and transcript with Halie Bahr and Cat Kamrath Monson. Published in Conversations a Journal of the Dance Studies Association. Fall 2024.
It’s not often my work gets mentioned in reviews. It’s even more rare to have substantial comments on it appear. So I feel really excited that the 3 reviews published for the absurdist “Have You Boomer?” kicking of LakeHouseRanchdotPNG’s third season have not only included my name, but some great commentary as well.
When the Lights Go Out (a Miami events website)
South Florida Theatre Magazine
The show closes Sept. 1, so get your tickets now!
I am so grateful to Karina Batchelor-Gomez for being a clear and generous collaborator and Brandon Urrutia for having me back at the Ranch.
And of course, Richard K. Weber and Bianca Utset, for making me look good while you do all the hard work of telling this story in such nuanced, embodied ways. Thank you.
Actors' Equity Workplace Safety Resources for Harassment, Bullying, Abuse or other unsafe work environments:
Submit a report online or call 833-550-0030.
You do not have to be a member to use this, there simply must be at least 1 Equity contract on the show.
AGMA
SAG-AFTRA reporting and resources website
A new project, created by me (Nicole Perry), AI Engineer Pedram Nimreezi, and Filmmaker Ed Talavera, has been selected as a Doris Duke Foundation Finalist for the Performing Arts Technologies Lab grant!
About our Project:
It is the goal of Totentanz to increase ownership and creative agency of choreographers and dancers, while at the same time increasing access to dance performances.
This project proposes to protect the creator(s), performance(s), and the performer(s), by providing tools and a platform for storing and sharing videos of choreographers who do not wish to have their works available for AI training.
This powerful combination of technological access and protection allows choreographers to promote their work, and reach audiences worldwide, while at the same time upholding their creative agency and protecting their intellectual property.
While being a finalist is not a guarantee of funding, it’s still pretty cool. It means the nation’s biggest arts funder thought that our idea was really worthwhile. In fact, they received 745 applications and only 40 are finalists! Stay tuned for news from me, and Momentum Stage, who is acting as our fiscal sponsor and nonprofit partner, in September when final decisions are made!
This week I have production meetings for 3 shows in organizations 24-25 theatre seasons, so it seems like a good time to wrap 23-24!
-3 shows as an ID (one was both dance and intimacy) that played out of state
-15 professional productions creating dance, intimacy, and/or violence
- 6 shows in educational settings with intimacy or dance by me
And 24-25 is off to a strong start!
I recently achieved SAG-AGTRA pre-registry status as an Intimacy Coordinator.
What does this mean?
Pretty much nothing. I will continue to do the work I get in Florida, with the occasional travel offers. My rates aren’t changing. I’m not moving. I’m just on a website.
I have some real issues with the registry, as I think it is incredibly inequitable for folks who live in small markets, and has the potential to create more inequality in terms of access and income, if the program stays as it is. I’ve spoken to several folks at SAG, several times, about ways I would like to see this program change to become more equitable and sustainable. But for now, we are where we are.
And much as I wanted to be certified as a way to honor myself for the time and money spent on training, I want to be on this list as a way to honor myself for the work I put, not just on training, but on making connections, doing a good job, and creating a reputation I am proud of.
So, both things are true. I am very glad to be on the Intimacy Coordinator pre-registry for SAG-AFTRA, and I wish the program was better.
The other day I tweeted (Xed?) “What is ‘unprofessional’ about care?” My difficult experiences at educational institutions, coupled with the stories shared by a few colleagues in educational institutions across the country, my other job as an intimacy coordinator, and my recent viewing of an episode of Murdoch Mysteries in which Dr. Ogden is fired because she prioritized the care of a patient of the ego of a male doctor led to this question.
The idea that care is unprofessional stems from a supremacist cultural normative ideal: a cis, heterosexual, white, able-bodied male. Performance Artist Johanna Hedva ([2016] 2022) wrote in her seminal essay on disability justice, Sick Woman Theory,
What is so destructive about this conception of wellness as the default, as the standard
mode of existence, is that it invents illness as temporary. When being sick is an abhorrence to the norm, it allows us to conceive of care and support in the same way.
Care and support, in this configuration, are only required sometimes. When sickness is temporary, care and support are not normal. (emphasis mine)
Care is not normal in our world. Which is exactly what makes care necessary.
Care, the arts, and teaching are all devalued in a society that values product over process. Our society is built on hierarchy, rather than community. However, if we are to humanize our profession, we must accept bodies and boundaries, and create community. Only through humanization will we prevent trauma and burn-out, and create an industry that values the artist as well as the art.
Hedva points out in the essay that part of the “problem” of care is gender. Women are often seen as needing more care, and are, professionally and domestically, more likely to be caregivers. An article in Scientific American concludes “According to ‘status value theory’, men's higher status in society means that men's roles and careers are given higher status than those of women. As a result, people value male-dominated domains more than female-dominated domains (Kaufman, 2020).” This specifically impacts care, as a report from Brunel University was summed up by its author “...the caring performed by a woman is often devalued as a 'natural' part of femininity…(Ward, 2005).”
Dance as a profession, is often gender-coded as “female”. Coupled with the caring profession of teaching, dance educators face a double devaluation of their work. This can be compounded with pedagogies that value consent and choice, methods that can receive pushback as “realistic” or “preparing students for the real world.”
As a teacher trainer, focused specifically on helping teachers at all grade levels develop pedagogies of care, I hear the above comments often. And my response is always, “We can acknowledge the world as it is, and work to change the world.”As creators, we make new worlds! We teach students to do this as they choreograph and perform. Students and teachers do not have to settle for the world as it is, especially when we know it is harmful and devalues humanity. An ethics of care, a pedagogy of care, a creative vision of care, demands that we see the humans beside us, in our classrooms and studios. Despite the pressures of society that would term care as “unprofessional”, I would suggest that care is the only way to create a sustainable classroom, rehearsal room, and dance industry. Care is necessary to be a professional.
In a workshop I led a few years ago on consent-forward spaces for acting teachers, in a rather famous US-based acting program, we touched briefly on the intersection of trauma- informed work with consent-forward work. One of the teachers, rather famous herself, responded that sometimes acting students are experiencing trauma or the reactivation of a trauma in the acting class, and they just need to “push through it, come out the other side, and use it to make them better actors.” I suggested to her that “if someone is experiencing trauma in your classroom, they are not actually learning. And, if they are not learning, you are not actually teaching. So, then, what are you doing?”
Trauma responses were developed for human survival. Dacher Keltner (2017) writes in The Power Paradox, “The human stress response is a dictatorial system, shutting down many other processes essential to our engagement in the world.... ...the chronic stress associated with powerlessness compromises just about every way a person might contribute to the world outside of fight-or-flight behavior” (151). When we are simply surviving, we do not have the energy to give to learning, deepening understanding or nuance, or creativity. Actively causing or allowing trauma will not create better art, better students, or better artists.
Choosing not to engage in work when trauma or harm occurs is professional. Trauma-informed teaching means that the power holder in the room must be aware that there are days that the work will not get done.The work that would get done in an activated state is not going to be our work anyway. An activated dancer may not even remember it, because their energy is being used for survival, not recall. Even if they do remember the work, it may cause activation when revisited, starting the cycle again. Sustainable work requires care.
If we are care-full educators, we must adjust our content and pedagogic methods so that we do not retraumatize or cause an additional trauma response in someone. “We cannot know everything that may activate everyone in our space. We can, however, take steps to make our spaces as welcoming to risk-taking and compassionate to complicated humans as possible” (Author, 2022. 25). As dance educators, ask them to explore those complications— their emotions, their past experiences, their relationships with others in the room, their relationship with their own body. Dance educators must practice care. To do anything less would be unprofessional.
My first, and definitely not my last, book contribution combining my work in intimacy direction and dance is now available.
Check out “The Intimacy Coordinator’s Guidebook”, edited by Brooke M. Haney, with contributions from professionals in various specialties. My contributions can be found in chapter 16, specifically on academic dance and touch in dance. My contributions are alongside those of Intimacy Direction in Dance co-founder, Sarah Lozoff.
Florida Intimacy Professionals (FLIP) is pleased to announce their launch of an online database for qualified Intimacy Directors and Coordinators in Florida. The organization was created by professionals in live (theatre, opera, and dance) and recorded (film and TV) entertainment to promote the use of Intimacy Professionals, and also to demonstrate best practices in the entertainment industry. These professionals, specially trained in movement for story-telling and creating moments of contact, uphold performer boundaries while fulfilling the creative vision of the director.
Read More2023 was a really creatively fulfilling year. I got to do so much in dance, intimacy, and movement direction, and I am so grateful to have had these opportunities.
TL;DR:
I did a lot of fun stuff with awesome people.
I work with students, who then become professional colleagues.
I work with director colleagues who value me, not just as box to check, but as movement artist who makes story better/more interesting/clearer.
Theatre improves your Spanish!
I interact with incredible artists, at the top of their craft. But my 2023 award for star collaborator goes to Morgan Parker.
Photos of all of these moments are on my Dance and Intimacy Choreography works sample pages.
January: I actually performed again, as well as choreographed for the 2nd "KINesphere", funded by the Broward County Cultural Division. I was also back at Theatre Lab ID'ing "Last Night in Inwood" by Alix Sobler, directed by Matt Stabile, featuring Aubrey Elson and Javon Jacobs.
February: I ID'd 3 shows: "Good People" at The Maltz Jupiter Theatre, "Chicken and Biscuits" with the incredible Bianca LaVerne Jones at Asolo Rep, and "Company" at NWSA.
March: I got to movement direct and choreograph as part of TheatreLab's New Play Festival. I also ID'd a Miami story, "Defacing Michael Jackson" at Miami New Drama.
I was also honored to be a speaker at the 40th annual Miami Film Festival, on Intimacy Coordination. I got to be with a wonderful creative and conversation partner, Chris Molina.
April: I had the honor of working on the Rolling World Premier of the incredible Spanish/English play-with-music, "Refuge" with friends and colleagues.
I also ventured into violence, as well as intimacy, for “Marisol” at NWSA.
May was a rest, which was great, because I needed to plan for my VAP position at FAU Department of Theatre & Dance, before jumping into rehearsals.
June: I had a blast with my second Summer Shorts at City Theatre. Extra bonus was working with Melissa Almaguer, Alex Alvarez, and Maha McCain on these.
A film I worked on the year before, "Jagged Mind" premiered in Miami at the American Black Film Festival, and then dropped on Hulu. It later makes Decidr's Top 10 List of Movie Sex Scenes for 2023! Masie Richardson-Sellars stars, with direction by Kelley Kali.
July: I met one of my new favorite humans and collaborators, Christopher Michaels! I did intimacy and violence for "Thrill Me", which he directed, starring Dylan Goike and Kevin Veloz. They were accompanied by Eric Alsford, and honestly, he and the 2 actors did NOT get enough love and notice this theatre season. They were perfection.
August: I got to work with Miami's hottest new theatre company, Lakehouseranchdotpng, on the world premier of "XOXO, Lola" starring Noelle Nichols and Samuel Krogh. Lauren Witte captured some of our rehearsals for the Miami Herald.
September: Was all about "Love! Valour! Compassion!". I worked my tail off on this one. Re-staging the "Little Swans" variation from "Swan Lake", creating a modern dance solo for Robert Koutras (who was flipping amazing at it), and collaborating with the legendary Michael Leeds on the intimate and violent moments. All of these actors were amazing and they ripped my heart out.
October: I FINALLY got to ID "Spring Awakening". It and "Romeo and Juliet" are like THE shows for IDs, and I've done R&J twice, so, it was time. This was for the BUTC at FAU. My favorite moment was actually the fantasy about the piano teacher. I am appreciative of the students' clear communication, bravery, and joy in the process.
A film I worked on the year before, "Pain Hustlers", also came to Netflix. I was the Miami unit IC.
November: At the end of October, I got to rejoin Bianca LaVerne Jones, this time in Philadelphia at the Lantern. I was so excited to come "home" to create the dance and intimacy for the powerful, beautiful "Crumbs from the Table of Joy".
I also did dance and intimacy for fun musical "9 to 5", at FAU. The dance captains, Sarah Sun Park and Marissa Spurr were invaluable, and working with Ted deChatelet and Caryl Ginsburg Fantel was a dream.
I also got to go back to the Lab, this time as the movement director for "The Berlin Diaries" as the forces that are Niki Fridh and Avi Hoffman tackled 14 characters in 85 minutes.
December: Was a month of joy as I watched Ballet 2 of FAU be more beautiful than I hoped in the fall dance concert. And right before the holidays, we closed "La Gringa" at City Theatre. This play exemplified the magic of theatre, for me. But also, the magic of the work I get to do.
Jagged Mind, now streaming on Hulu, has one of Decider’s “10 Hottest Movie Sex Scenes in 2023”! Read what they said here.
While I am super excited to have my work noticed and celebrated (not to mention the work of the director and actors), I was really disappointed to see that not only did this piece not mention a single intimacy coordinator to credit their work, but, it didn’t even mention the fact that the role of intimacy coordinator exists. We still have a long ways to go…..
I was a guest on “Making the Impact: a Dance Competition Podcast” this season. I was alongside Keanu Uchida, talking about abuse in dance. Check out the episode here, or on your favorite podcast service.
Check out some photos of me at work with LakeHouseRanchdotPNG in this online story from the Miami Herald.
Photos and story by Lauren Witte.
Actors: Noelle Nichols and Samuel Krogh
Nicole LaBonde- Transformation Coaching of Mind and Body, Pilates, Nutritional Cleansing
CABARRET- Barre and Dance Fitness
Public Persona- Professional Image Coaching for Public Speaking and/or Online Branding for Fitness Instructors, Life Coaches, Healers and other Heart-Centered Entrepreneurs.
, Fort Lauderdale, FL