Intimacy Practitioner
Intimacy Coordination and Direction For Screen and Stage
What is an Intimacy Practitioner?
An Intimacy Practitioner (IP) serves as a resource for a production in realizing the story and creative vision. They do this by acting as a facilitator for scenes of intimacy, nudity, simulated sex, and other hyper-exposed scenes that may draw on a performer’s identity. IPs are trained in numerous topics (including choreography/movement, mental health first aid, consent and boundaries, gender & sexuality, anti-racism, conflict resolution…) in order to better serve a productions needs.
What sets Cheek to Cheek Apart
Dynamic Storytelling
We are committed to realizing the show’s creative vision with an emphasis on authenticity, dignity, and compassion. We practice cultural humility and an intersectional approach to crafting scenes of intimacy. This allows us to serve the story and honor the full humanity of the people telling that story.
Collaboration
We are here to support. Support the performers, director, producers, creative team, crew, and everyone involved in the process so that they can do their best work. We facilitate open communication across departments, provide useful consent-based frameworks, and act as a resource to production.
Empowerment
We meet people where they are at. Through ongoing, informed consent and bodily autonomy, we help performers cultivate their own felt sense of agency and safety to allow them to show up fully in their character, serving the story. We provide accessible options, tools for reducing stress, and foster an environment of choice.
Advocacy
We help make the working environment a welcome space for all bodies, identities, genders, intersections and orientations. We acknowledge people’s cultural and historical experience through anti-racism practice, emphasizing dignity, neutrally navigating power dynamics, consultancy, and acting as an emotional support during production.
How Can We Help your project
Some of our services include:
choreography to enhance believability
ensuring adherence to union safety protocols (including closed set protocols)
consultancy on numerous topics including consent-based practices, stress, conflict resolution, gender, sexuality, and how they intersect with other aspects of society and identity (including trans+ experience)
acting as an onset advocate and emotional support
reducing risk (financial, insurance, or market-related) and helping to avoid unnecessary production delays
ensuring the informed and continued consent of performers and facilitating agreements and expectations between performers and production
coordinating across departments and ensuring the process runs smoothly from pre to post production
facilitating open and clear communication while neutrally navigating power dynamics
and more!
What People Are Saying
“Alison is the rare kind of collaborator whose contributions help both a project and its artists to evolve. They approach Intimacy as a creative opportunity, in which storytellers are empowered to explore dynamic choices informed by safety and consent. My collaboration with Alison began as a dialogue about staging Intimacy, but then transcended into a collectively shared conversation about care that empowered every artist in my room. My directorical experience became transcendent because Alison’s work is transcendent. If you work with Alison, your work will evolve.”
— é boylan, Director, Creator, Composer
“Alison is an excellent person to have on your crew when attempting to portray sensitive and intimate moments between people. They allowed filming of intimate contact scenes to be shot efficiently, effectively, and safely. They gave the director the tools, language, and comfortability to guide actors through intimate contact while maintaining the creative process. Alison's work was essential to the success of our project and the safety of cast and crew. And I'd be happy to work with them again on any future project!”
— Danielle Dougé, Producer
“Alison was a fantastic presence on my production! I had never shot intimate scenes before and would have been lost without them. From our pre-production meeting to rehearsals to the shoot itself, they always supported me as a director, allowing my actors to feel comfortable so I could explore the depths of their characters while working in a safe, ethical environment. Alison's cheeriness, attention to detail and wealth of experience made for a terrific partnership!”
—Eric Nelson, Director & Writer
“Alison took the scene in my film that I was the most stressed about filming and made it one of the smoothest days on set. It put my mind at ease knowing how much care they were providing for my actors. They also went above and beyond to make sure everyone felt safe and comfortable after the scene was wrapped. In addition to creating a safe space for the actors, Alison centered the artistic vision in the process and handled my writing with great respect and thoughtful stewardship. A wonderful experience all around, and I will never make a film without an intimacy coordinator again!”
— Maggie Talbot-Minkin, Director & Writer
“We really could not have made the film we did without Alison. With a film at this level of intimacy, and with actors who had just met a day before, the biggest hurtle was making them feel comfortable with each other. More than comfortable, like they'd known each other for years. And the hardest place to pull that off are in the quiet and intimate moments. Alison worked magic for us there. They knew not how to work with the actors and give them specific choreography for those moments, but they also knew the script so well that they had great notes on what brought the characters to those moments. Alison also made the filming of those moments feel relaxed. I was told after by a crew member that the scenes of intimacy were the most relaxed moments on set, with the actors and crew feeling safe to do perform their jobs. I attribute that all to Alison who's also very warm and patient while on-set. Would 100% recommend them to anyone who has this sort of work in their film.”
— Director