And: what do I bring to the table as an intimacy director?

Intimacy directors (like me!) help stage scenes that involve anything from heightened romance to simulated sex or nudity/exposure. Basically: if it includes intimate physical or sexual contact, I can help! I’ve been dancing since I was 4 years old, so I see intimacy work as a natural extension of my passion for storytelling through movement. With my background in devising, I love to get in the room with directors and actors and collaboratively find a magical moment that the actors can still sustainably perform night after night.

All that being said, I’m constantly aware of the power I hold in a room as the ID, and I seek to decolonize our conception of power (à la Foucault and hooks). Now, what does that even mean? Long story short: power is everywhere, but that doesn’t mean it has to be something “bad” that enforces harmful hierarchies. Instead, decolonizing power means re-interpreting it as power to work against systems of oppression and create a space where everyone feels valued. That’s the power we all have.

I also believe that consent practices should be incorporated into every rehearsal room, so a large part of my ID work is teaching more theatre artists that consent can be easy to implement. Specifically with actors, I try to encourage them to advocate for themselves. As someone who went through training as an actor, I know that self-advocacy goes against a lot of what acting school teaches us — but consent practices can give actors easy and efficient tools to ensure they can speak up when they need to. Ultimately, consent allows for more efficient and joyful processes as we all work together to create something beautiful.