What is an Intimacy Director or Coordinator?

Over the last few years, the professions of intimacy direction and intimacy coordination have seen a dramatic increase in attention and recognition. Intimacy coordinators are being utilized on most major television shows, and intimacy direction is now an integral part of live performance in regional theatre, opera, and dance, as well as in university performing arts departments and on Broadway.

What Is an Intimacy Director or Coordinator?

At IDC, we use the following definition:

An intimacy director or coordinator is a choreographer, an advocate for actors, and a liaison between actors and production for scenes that involve nudity / hyper-exposed work, simulated sex acts, and/or intimate physical contact. 

We use the two titles (director and coordinator) to refer to two different areas of the arts. Intimacy direction refers to work done for theatre or live performance, and intimacy coordination refers to work done for television and film. These terms were originally derived from their choreographed violence counterparts – fight directors work in live performance while stunt coordinators work in television and film. The term “intimacy professional” is often used as a catch-all term and can be applied to all areas of entertainment. You may also see professionals use terms such as “intimacy choreographer” or “intimacy consultant” to refer to similar work. 

But...What is Defined as Intimacy?

Isn’t storytelling, in and of itself, intimate? How do we define the scope of practice of an intimacy director when the term “intimacy” is colloquially used to refer to such a wide range of actions? 

Intimacy is colloquially defined as “something of a personal or private nature.” When using the term intimacy in the context of stage or screen work, IDC has a slightly different definition. For our purposes, we define intimacy as “nudity or hyper-exposed work, simulated sex acts, and intimate physical contact.” This definition helps to define the scope of practice of the intimacy professional. 

Let's look more closely at each of these three categories of intimacy…

• Simulated Sexual Acts. This refers to a scene that tells the story of sexual contact between two or more characters or an act of simulated self-stimulation.  

• Nudity / Hyper-Exposure. Nudity is often defined as anything that involves exposing the buttocks, genitals, and/or breasts/nipples. The term hyper-exposure creates space for advocacy regarding areas of the body that a performer usually keeps covered in their day-to-day life but consents to have visible in a performance. If a performer feels as though the action of exposing a specific part of the body will be a particularly vulnerable experience for them, an intimacy professional can address the moment with similar scaffolding that is used for nudity. Some examples might include a person’s hair or head that they usually keep covered in public, or a scar that someone usually does not reveal. 

• Intimate Physical Contact. This is content that does not represent an explicit sex act, but tells the story of a moment that is very intimate, sexually charged, or simulates genital contact.  Examples can include the story of a caretaker giving a sponge bath, an intense kissing scene, or a birthing scene.

Let’s pause here and consider who currently and historically has dictated what counts as intimacy. While having an overall definition is helpful to provide operational structure, it is important to name the historical commodification and disregard for particular bodies that has created deep complexities around this question. What feels “regular” or non-intimate to one person may feel deeply intimate to another depending on both their personal, generational, and cultural histories. An important part of intimacy work is to acknowledge this and to support each individual to find their own way to define, for themselves, what is intimate and when they might want support or advocacy. Sometimes this advocacy may need to come from an additional professional, such as a cultural consultant. Other times, it may mean that an intimacy professional is not a good fit for a particular job, based on the knowledge that their identity may not best support the room.

So, What Does an Intimacy Director or Coordinator Actually Do?

An intimacy professional is first and foremost a movement specialist whose role is to support the storytelling of intimate moments. To do this, the position can be divided into three smaller roles, each of which is just as important as the other –  advocate, liaison, and choreographer. 

• Advocate. Intimacy direction or coordination cannot be done without a firm foundation of consent-based work. Because of the vulnerable nature of these stories, this role is responsible for ensuring that performers maintain agency over their bodies and have access to tools to advocate for their boundaries and needs. Additionally, they ensure that the performers involved in a scene of intimacy consent to the actions choreographed and stories being told. As an advocate, they are a support system that facilitates conversations involving the performers and the creative team, helping to ensure that everyone has the tools that they need to do their best work. This can be a powerful force to combat potentially harmful power dynamics and can foster a space where consent can be freely given and withdrawn.

• Liaison. Intimacy professionals are department heads, and as such, they serve as a connection point and communication specialist within the production. With a specific lens of intimate storytelling, intimacy professionals may do such things as communicate about the need for knee pads or modesty garments with costumes or communicate with the lighting designer ahead of time that there will be a moment of nudity. Intimacy directors and coordinators are connective tissue in a production and work to ensure that all parties have the information necessary to support vulnerable storytelling.

• Choreographer. As movement professionals, intimacy directors and coordinators must understand how to collaboratively create and set movements that are consensual, dynamic, and repeatable to fulfill the director's vision and support the boundaries of the performers. Choreography may be set moves that are very specific, or it may look like choreographic parameters that have some room for adjustments or shifts. The goal is to have the same story be told that is agreed upon by the performers and director, no matter how many times the show is performed or the scene is shot.  

The practice of intimacy direction and coordination may look slightly different from professional to professional, just in the same way that individual fight directors or stunt coordinators may work slightly differently. At IDC, we utilize the five pillars of intimacy in production to help create a roadmap for how intimacy work looks in practice. These pillars offer a framework while not dictating a single best practice. These five pillars are “Context, Consent, Communication, Choreography, and Closure.” We have built a resource for you to read up on each pillar a little more.

If you’re ever in doubt about what an intimacy director or coordinator does, the best thing to do is ask them! Most intimacy professionals will be happy to share how they think their skills would benefit the project. 

Defining the Scope of Practice for Intimacy Professionals

Specificity with regards to the responsibilities of this position is needed to allow for production companies to better understand how the role can be fully integrated into the process. 

An intimacy professional is, first and foremost, a movement specialist who translates intimate stories into a physical structure that is repeatable and sustainable for the performers. To do so, this profession relies on a code of ethics that centers on advocacy and consensual collaboration. Additionally, as a movement specialist (and depending on the professional’s lived and researched expertise) an ID or IC may be able to collaborate in the dramaturgy for that intimate storytelling - but this is not always the case. 

Intimacy work intersects with a variety of other specialties and an intimacy professional may need support for specialized content. It is important to make space for other roles and consultants to contribute to this storytelling. 

Within the industry, there has been a rise of more specialized consultants and coordinators for issues related to race, identity, disability, trauma, violence, BDSM, etc. Consulting allows for more nuanced expertise and the incorporation of voices whose lived experiences are pertinent to the story at hand. The intimacy professional can then support this collaborative dramaturgy with consensual movement practice and choreographic techniques. In some cases, an intimacy professional may not be a good fit for a particular job, based on the knowledge that their identity may not best support the room. In these cases, an intimacy professional may opt-out of a particular contract or recommend an artist whose expertise is a better fit for the work at hand. 

There are some instances where an intimacy professional may be able to offer support in another area of expertise in addition to their work as an intimacy professional. When doing so, they should be billed and compensated appropriately for each role. Let's take a look at some common examples:

Example: The intersection of staged violence and intimacy

In the case of a live performance that involves simulated violence and intimacy, both a fight director and an intimacy director will likely be needed. These are two separate positions. Intimacy and Fight directors can be excellent collaborators as they share a background in movement and choreography. In some cases, one person may have both fight and intimacy skill sets. If that professional decides that it is within their capacity to take on both jobs, they should be billed and compensated appropriately for each role. In many cases, even if one person has both skill sets, it may best serve the process to hire two separate professionals so that person each can focus on just one area of expertise in the service of safety and storytelling.

Example: The intersection of intimacy work and identity-based storytelling

For shows that center both scenes of intimacy and conflicts surrounding the character’s identity — such as stories of racial tension, historical identity-based violence, or challenges related to disabled bodies — a production may best be supported by hiring both an intimacy professional and a specialized consultant. Examples of specialized consultants include: a cultural consultant, a disability consultant, or a race consultant. The specialized consultant facilitates the creation of the necessary dramaturgy in addition to providing a framework for the creative team's psychological safety. This enables the cast and crew to work more healthfully with heightened moments of identity-based storytelling. The intimacy professional and specialized consultant can be excellent collaborators for scenes that contain both identity-based storytelling and simulated sex, nudity, hyper exposure, and/or physical intimacy. The intimacy professional works within the set framework of psychological safety and supports it with a consensual movement practice. 

Both of these roles are centered on advocacy, but each requires specialized training and significant labor. In some cases, one person may be positioned, because of their lived experience or a significant level of learned expertise, to provide support for dramaturgy, emotional wellness, and physical storytelling. Often, though, a clear separation of these roles allows each professional to focus on the specialized support that they are contracted to provide. In the case that one professional has the qualifications for and is serving in both roles, they should be billed and compensated appropriately for each position. 

Intimacy Work as Part of a Larger Culture Shift

The foundations of intimacy work have made a tremendous impact in the arts over the last few years, and the awareness of the industry’s need for consent-based practices has grown exponentially. Many artists have been developing their own practices for handling intimate material and, with the professionalization of intimacy direction, are seeing an increase in the ability to utilize those skills with institutional support. 

While intimacy work has pioneered and popularized the idea of consent-based artistic practices, these methods and values should not be confined to scenes of intimacy. It is important to utilize consent-forward practices during all types of scene work, whether or not an intimacy professional is present. Doing so contributes to a culture of consent in the workspace and it allows for performers and directors to work with more ease and confidence. 

We encourage you to think about how the principles of consent and agency can be emphasized throughout our industry and how these values can help guide each of us towards choices that center on the humanity of those we work with. If we each commit to making some intentional shifts in our habits, we can contribute to a seismic change in our industry - a change that is vitally needed.

Let us know your thoughts in the Consent Studio!