September News Stories about Intimacy Direction, Intimacy Coordination

What Intimacy Direction can Bring to Dance. Dance Magazine. September 2020.

What Playwrights can Learn from Intimacy Directors. A conversation with Gaby Labotka for Howlround. September 1, 2020.

What It’s Like To Be A Black Intimacy Coordinator In The Era Of Consent And Political Resistance. An interview with Tenice Divya Johnson and Sasha Smith. Elle Magazine. September 8 2020.

Tea and Sex Session on Intimacy Direction

Back in July I got to be a guest on the Wilzig Erotic Art Museum’s Thursday afternoon Tea and Sex sessions, talking about intimacy direction!

Here Melissa and I discuss the “what it is”. This is just the first few minutes of an hour-long conversation and interactive session with participants.

Nicole Perry is a guest on the Wilzig Erotic Art Museum's Tea and Sex Thursday afternoon session with Melissa Blundell-Osorio discussing what is intimacy dir...

I talk. A lot. Sometimes people let me talk on their shows.

And this is one of those times!

Jimmy Chrismon, an intimacy direction colleague, hosts ThedTalks, a theatre education podcast. He interviewed me about intimacy direction and Momentum Stage. Check it out here: https://thedtalks.com/podcast/

I have a few more podcast appearances coming up. Stay tuned!

August News Stories about Intimacy Direction, Intimacy Coordination

Intimacy Direction in a time of Physical Distance. Emily Snyder for HowlRound.com . Nicole was interviewed for this piece, but sadly no quotes were used.

Creating a Pedagogy and Ethics of Teaching With(out) Touch

Momentum Stage has just launched a new course I wrote combining my training in intimacy choreography, the Laban/Bartenieff Movement System and my years as both an educator and creator of movement.

This is to offer teaching options for those who are either encouraged or mandated to not touch in teaching. This is not a class about touching student. It is a class to consider IF touch is necessary, HOW do we teach without it (or very little of it), and WHEN/IF it is necessary, to make very specific choices in our type of touch in order to be as effective as possible with that touch.

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June News Stories about Intimacy Direction, Intimacy Coordination

What does Intimacy on Stage Look Like after Corona?

Well, that’s a really bold question, as we have no idea what just being on stage looks like right now!

But, in the past week I’ve had a couple of conversations about this, and I do have some thoughts.

  1. Even if we’re “back to normal”, there are going to be performers, directors, and administrators that are more wary of intimacy, especially if those intimate moments would cause a meeting of soft tissues like kissing. I am already in the habit of choreographing a “Plan B” for kisses that can be done in case of actor illness, and understudy stepping in, etc. A good intimacy director/choreographer should have been providing these all along, and they, the director, and the actors involved should all feel just as confident about the story-telling involved in those moments as they do with the kiss. See my earlier post about Plan Bs.

    It is possible that bringing on an Intimacy Director/Choreographer is part of a company’s safety plan. This was raised in a conversation hosted by Directors Lab West yesterday with Ann James of Intimacy Directors of Color and Carly D. Weckstein, an independent sex educator and Intimacy Director (check out the convo here). Bringing in an ID could be a way a company says to their community that they take the physical and mental health of their performers and production crew seriously, and are hiring people with specials skills in doing that.

    Both of these thoughts lead me to #2.

  2. Intimacy Directors/Choreographers are Movement Specialists. And movement is still going to be on stage, even if physical contact is not.

    Intimacy Directors/Choreographers are movement specialists (or at least they should be). They have been trained in movement for the stage. Sometimes this aspect gets lost in the more “news-worthy” part of the job- gaining consent, establishing boundaries, hopefully avoiding lawsuits for the company, etc. I came to this work after 10 years of choreographing. I have a Bachelor’s degree in dance. I have studied movement at an even deeper level by obtaining my Laban certification. When I train with IDI, IDC, or TIE, we are given feedback not just on our ability to put best practices in communication into use, but in our choreographic abilities. My job is make sure the story is told, and told well, and that the director and actors feel confident in the performance.

    I believe my in-depth knowledge of movement will make me more of an asset to confident story-telling on the stage, even if the actors must remain apart or not fully physically engaged in the intimacy.

I do believe my role will still be necessary when we get back in space together. For safety and for the sake of the story, I think it will be even more necessary! We’ll see if the industry agrees!

I’d love your thoughts- whether you are a performer, director, producer, or audience member- what would seeing this role in a playbill mean to you pre-Coronavirus? Would it mean the same, or something different after? Leave me a comment!

April News Stories about Intimacy Direction, Intimacy Choreography, and Intimacy Coordination

25 April 2020. Sexy Beats: How “Normal People”' ‘s Intimacy Coordinator Works. by Sian Cain for The Guardian.

21 April 2020. Claire Warden Receives Drama Desk Awards Special Award for Intimacy. See list of all nominees and awards at the link.

12 April 2020. The Stake Were Really High: The Stars Bringing Sally Rooney’s ‘Normal People’ to Life. by Claire Armistead and Johanna Thomas-Corr for The Guardian.

4 April 2020. Creating Scenes of Intimacy Safely, Seamlessly, and Convincingly on Stage. by Aaron Krause for Theatrical Musings.