Close encounters

Helping dancers feel safe in sexual or violent scenes is ever more important to ballet companies. Jane Albert explores the crucial role of intimacy coordinators.

Close encounters

Helping dancers feel safe in sexual or violent scenes is ever more important to ballet companies. Jane Albert explores the crucial role of intimacy coordinators.

Jane Albert | features | Issue 12 - Feb 2025

Australian Ballet principal artist Callum Linnane will never forget his debut in the title role of Nijinsky in 2016. Only 21 at the time it was the then-corps de ballet member’s first lead, and a mentally and physically demanding role at that. But that’s not the only reason it is seared into his memory.

Nijinsky is still one of the most cherished experiences of my career, but at the end I just completely crashed and burned. Sometimes I’d go home hours after the show and still be in the mind space. I felt like I was burnt out,’ he says.

Nine years later the Australian Ballet (AB) is preparing to bring John Neumeier’s extraordinary production back to the stage, with one significant difference: the company has engaged intimacy coordinator Amy Cater. Not only is Cater working with the various casts on how to ‘de-role’ or mindfully come out of character at show’s end, better managing that risk of burnout and its associated mental and physical side-effects – she’s also in the rehearsal room assisting on intimacy, dramaturgy and how to slowly and safely work up to being performance ready, no matter what your rank or role.

And it isn’t just Nijinsky. Artistic director David Hallberg has also commissioned Cater to work with the company on Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon and Johan Inger’s Carmen, both involving intimate scenes, sexual aggression, even murder. The AB isn’t alone in using intimacy coordinators. This relatively new role is becoming a regular addition to creative teams in ballet, film and TV and on theatre stages around the world. Brought on early in a show’s life, they help create a safe, professional environment where intimate and challenging content can be successfully realised without compromising creativity or well-being.

Intimacy directors, or coordinators, emerged in the screen industry in the wake of the #MeToo movement when women in particular felt emboldened to speak out about unacceptable bullying and coercive behaviour they’d experienced on set. In 2018 HBO announced it would be hiring coordinators where relevant, while Netflix, Amazon and the BBC brought on UK-based trailblazer Ita O’Brien to work on 2019 shows Sex Education, Hanna and Gentleman Jack.

‘Dance is traditionally quite an autocratic system. This needs to change’

Christopher Hampson
Christopher Hampson. Photo: Helen Maybanks

The performing arts, and specifically dance, were slower to respond. ‘Dance is traditionally quite an autocratic system, certainly in its legacy,’ says Scottish Ballet artistic director Christopher Hampson, a choreographer and former dancer with English National Ballet. ‘I’ve tried as hard as I can during my leadership to instil a sense of autonomy in the dancers. On top of the energy of #MeToo and the pause for reflection around studio best practice that Covid gave, I thought: this needs to change.’

Conscious of the intimacy and sexual and gendered violence in the company’s 2022 production of MacMillan’s The Scandal at Mayerling, Scottish Ballet engaged intimacy coordinators RC Annie (Rachel Bown-Williams and Ruth Cooper-Brown), the first UK ballet company to include the role (American Ballet Theater, National Ballet of Canada and UK’s Rambert soon did likewise).


‘It’s been incredibly valuable and something we can carry production to production,’ says Hampson, referring to the 2024 staging of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s A Streetcar Named Desire that confronted similar themes. ‘Some of my dancers are very young and are expected to portray intimacy on the stage. At Scottish Ballet we feel a particular responsibility for the young people to make sure they’re feeling safe and supported so we brought in these two wonderful women to work not just with the dancers but anybody in the rehearsal space.’

So what exactly is an intimacy coordinator and what does their work involve? At its most basic, an intimacy coordinator is similar to a fight director – long used to choreograph and oversee fight scenes – but instead of duels they specialise in intimacy.

In Australia the practice of using intimacy coordinators followed detailed anonymous surveys in 2018 of members of the national union, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance. This returned troubling data around industry-wide harassment and bullying. Typically the behaviour came from a superior (director or choreographer), leaving actors and dancers afraid to speak up for fear of losing a role or not being re-employed.

‘We were the first union in the world to have quantifiable data to work with and started creating actionable change. SAG-AFTRA and Equity UK quickly followed,’ says former music theatre star-turned intimacy coordinator Chloe Dallimore. ‘Our industry decided to look at their practices and how they could do better.’

‘Everyone was saying, why haven’t we done this before?’

Chloe Dallimore

That year the union invited Ita O’Brien, the founder of the UK’s Intimacy on Set, to run national industry-wide workshops. ‘Everyone was saying, why haven’t we done this before?,’ says Dallimore, who in 2019 co-founded Intimacy Coordinators Australia with actor Michala Banas and fight director Nigel Poulton.

As an emerging industry there is no standard way of working, although those I met agreed the earlier they’re involved, the better. Typically they meet with choreographers, writers or directors before rehearsals begin to discuss the script or scenario, and any potentially challenging scenes or red flags; then work through those with the performers themselves to establish their levels of comfort, whether it’s physical, emotional or even familial intimacy. Some coordinators use body maps so dancers can indicate areas that may be vulnerable or uncomfortable to touch, communicating this with colleagues.

Almost all intimacy coordinators are former performers themselves, giving them valuable lived experience. Also Intimacy On Set-trained, Cater has 20 years’ experience working as a performer, sex educator and sexuality and gender best practice consultant. In addition to collaborating with the AB, this year she’ll be consulting on Christopher Wheeldon’s MJ the Musical and the Melbourne Theatre Company’s The Removalists, among others. Last year Wheeldon and Hallberg invited her to work with them on Wheeldon’s premiere of Oscar for the AB, a ballet based on the life of Irish writer Oscar Wilde. Billed as the world’s first queer ballet, Wheeldon was anxious the non-queer male leads dancing Wilde should feel comfortable and authentic with the intimacy portrayed.

Marge Hendrick (centre) rehearsing A Streetcar Named Desire (Scottish Ballet). Photo: Mihaela Bodlovic
Sophie Martin and Christopher Harrison rehearse The Scandal at Mayerling (Scottish Ballet). Photo: Andy Ross
Evan Loudon and Roseanna Leney in The Scandal at Mayerling. Photo: Andy Ross

‘How do we work with themes in a pragmatic but creatively exciting way?’

Amy Cater
Benjamin Garrett and Callum Linnane in Oscar. Photo: Christopher Rodgers-Wilson

‘The experience of working with Chris was a delight, but also the dancers – it’s a constant free-flowing conversation about what’s working,’ Cater says. ‘From the beginning it was [made clear] if there was any part of the choreography they weren’t able to step into, then that conversation could be had. It’s not so much around consent and preferences, although that’s part of it, but my involvement is more when working with themes that are more charged to powerplay or aggression and violence. How do we work with that in a pragmatic but creatively exciting way where people are inspired to step into those roles but also know they’re supported as they explore that?’

For Linnane, who danced Wilde for the critically-acclaimed world premiere of Oscar, Cater’s collaborative, reassuring and empathetic support was invaluable. ‘It’s the double-edged sword of being a performer, you want it to be as real as possible but sometimes that can bring up unwanted feelings,’ he says, referencing his Carmen character Don José, who kills his lover in a jealous, near-psychotic rage. ‘I spoke to Amy about ways of dealing with that, learning you can still go there and fully invest yourself in a character but still be able to switch off. She gave me some amazing pointers; it was completely new.’

Evan Loudon and Marge Hendrick in The Scandal at Mayerling. Photo: Andy Ross

While the practice of employing intimacy coordinators is gaining broader acceptance, Hampson says he still experiences push-back from audience members and the occasional dancer, concerned that unpacking the scenes removes passion and spontaneity. ‘We did get some flack – not for the first time I got called a “woke” director. But it adds to the work, because the safer a performer feels, the more they can invest in a physical performance.’

Dallimore is encouraged by the speed with which the industry is embracing this pioneering field, noting she was initially brought on mid-shoot to find solutions to existing problems where now she begins at script stage, and is regularly invited to address acting and directing students. ‘This younger generation of actors are going out into the industry already knowing the process and expecting it on set,’ says Dallimore, who is working on Netflix’s Heartbreak High and Opera Australia’s summer season.

The changes in the industry are undeniable. ‘Actors feel they have a voice,’ Dallimore explains, ‘writers say that because they know an intimacy coordinator is involved they’re a bit braver in what they write; and conversations around content happen when an offer is first made. Communication has improved massively.’


Jane Albert, an author and journalist specialising in the arts, is a regular contributor to the Weekend AustralianAustralian Financial Review and Good Weekend among others.

Bex Glendining is a biracial queer, UK-based illustrator, comic artist and colourist. Their debut graphic novel On Starlit Shores will be published this year by Abrams Books.


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