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Since 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.
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 MoreLast month, Renee Redding-Jones and I, representing Intimacy Direction in Dance, joined a panel of dance educators, scientists, social workers, and mental health professionals on a panel for IADMS (International Association for Dance Medicine and Science) to discuss creating consent culture in dance.
IADMS has made the recording available, for free, for everyone. Watch it here.
In the past 2 weeks I’ve been on two podcasts-
Apolla Performance/Turning Point Creations’ “Beyond the Steps” talking about how, as dance educators, we can help students distinguish the difference between a boundary and a risk.
Audra Allen’s “Dance CEO Coach” talking about equity and professional development in dance.
Both of these are great resources for dance educators and dance entrepreneurs!
Sadly, DanceGeist ezine will be going away soon. DG was a great alternative to competition, commercial-based dance publications, with its focus on Somatics, disruption, and community. Unfortunately, that also means it was hard to sustain. But, I have been given access to all of my pieces from DG! I have link the power and consent series here, and the rest of the articles are all over on the Dance page, if you scroll to the bottom. Enjoy and share!
Creating Consent Culture in Dance
originally published in the Dance Geist ezine, Feb-April 2021
Over on the “Why Hire an Intimacy Choreographer” page, I’ve created 3 new, free, downloads that I think might be useful for theatre or dance companies or production companies or studios considering whether an Intimacy Choreographer is the right fit for the project, and what they can expect that to look like:
5 Questions to ask when Hiring an Intimacy Choreographer
Intimacy Coordination Overview
Intimacy Direction Overview
As this is my website, the views expressed on this page, that page, and in those documents are solely my own.
Clock-time is a colonial construct, followed to support capitalism. We know that is only a construct, and that time is much more spiraling than linear. And yet, we have agreed to live in society following this guideline.
As a teacher or leader, I can’t create more time, but I can shift how we feel about time.
Read MoreFinally, after a long road of graduate exploration beginning in 2016, I am excited to share I officially hold a Master (hate it) of Fine Arts degree in Interdisciplinary Arts with concentrations in both Decolonial Arts Praxis and Performance Creation Concentrations from Goddard College.
This wasn’t a journey I took alone. The following is my acknowledgements page from my thesis, Working Consent: Ethical Engagement with Collaborators, Audiences, and the Land in Dance and Theatre Pedagogy and Practice.
Read MoreConsent cannot exist if someone is under manipulation, influence, or coercion. Therefore, consent cannot exist when power dynamics are at play. Because power dynamics, whether social-structural or embodied, influence how we chose, behave, and speak.
Which is why consent does not exist for performers or students.
Read More“Boundaries” is a term that gets thrown around a lot in Intimacy work. But what, exactly, IS a boundary?
A lot of times, we think about boundaries as “don’t touch my___!” And that’s valid! But, it’s also a VERY narrow definition. I like to think of Boundaries in 3 ways:
Content
Context
Physical
What are you performing? Are there content, themes, stories that you should not engage with, for your own well being? You may find certain things activating, or simply not be your favorite kind of story to tell. If you are working towards being anti-racist and equitable, you will have boundaries on representing characters who have been marginalized by the demographics you represent.
Where are you performing? And, who are you performing with? You may be fine being in a state of undress in a 3000 seat house, because the audience is far away from you, and not with undressing in a 100 seat house, where you and the audience can see each other’s pores! You may feel confident performing certain acts of simulated sex with a scene partner you’ve worked with before, but not be ready to do so with someone you just met.
What is my body experiencing? I invite you to open up your idea of physical boundaries. Instead of just asking what you are willing to have done to your body, also ask:
You may be up for all sorts of content, in all sorts of contexts, but never want your body to be suspended above the stage. You may feel confident in having your glutes slapped in the course of story-telling, but not want to perform that action on others.
If you found these questions helpful, head over to the Shop at MomentumStage.org and download the Boundaries Worksheet for FREE! Then you will have them at your fingertips the next time you go to an audition or take a call from your agent. Just use the code “TIKTOK” at checkout.
In an earlier post, I offered some different definitions of intimacy from various organizations in North America, as well as my own operating meaning of intimacy.
Something I left out of that post was “hyper-exposure”, which might be a new word for you! Hyper-exposure is the word that we use in intimacy to cover a lot of different situations. Here are some examples:
Read MoreNicole 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.
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