When dancers touch: the push for real consent in this intimate art form

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

When dancers touch: the push for real consent in this intimate art form

By Emma Sullivan

A delicate brush of a hand, a tight grip on the thigh – touch is everywhere in dance. From traditional choreography through to the contemporary avant-garde, participants connect skin to skin. So what happens when you want to open a conversation about consent?

The #MeToo movement and the topic of consent have been in the mainstream for several years now, and in the international dance world, change is coming. Leading ballet companies such as the Scottish Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, the National Ballet of Canada and Rambert in the UK have hired intimacy coaches to consult on narrative-driven productions.

Dancers and dance companies are starting to look closely at the issue of consent in the dance world.

Dancers and dance companies are starting to look closely at the issue of consent in the dance world.Credit:iStock

Intimacy coaching can include sculpting and choreographing intimate scenes, as well as providing information on how a company or production can navigate consent language and process.

However, dance companies in Australia are yet to follow this lead. Although some have relevant company policies and hold harassment seminars, industry insiders say a more fundamental change is overdue.

And they argue, it is badly needed. Dancers lose their voice at a young age: taught to be quiet, “suck it up”, “get on with it” and participate in silence. Young hopefuls become desensitised to touch, as teachers pull at their heads or twist their bodies into shape.

“Ballet infrastructure is so potent with the patriarchy and the male gaze.”

Natalie Allen

Professional dancer and movement director Natalie Allen says an invisible contract to say yes to everything is signed the moment a dancer steps into a studio.

“Because the whole dance, ballet infrastructure is so potent with the patriarchy and the male gaze, I think most of the time we don’t even realise, all of us have this sense of pleasing someone who’s the authoritarian,” she says.

“It’s interwoven into the history of the dance/ballet world – the kind of infantilising of the female, romanticising, and the sexualisation of them has been inbred for centuries.”

Advertisement
Loading

The topic of consent is multi-layered in the dance world. Beyond the high-touch nature of the medium, performers may play characters that the narrative puts in vulnerable situations: sexually charged choreography in Carmen Suite, topless productions of Jiri Kylian’s Bella Figura, or a brutal rape scene in the third act of Manon, for example. Even seemingly simple scenes, like the kiss in Romeo and Juliet’s balcony pas de deux, can stir awkward emotions for performers.

Choreographer Alice Topp says dance, a silent art form, does not naturally lead to conversation around comfort in the studio. Performers should be allowed to explore their limitations and voice their concerns around intimate choreography, she believes.

“I think it’s a no-brainer that every company would benefit from an intimacy coach in creating movement, in order to assist both the choreographer and the dancers and to help navigate that world sensitively, safely and with clarity where everyone in the room has a voice,” she says.

“It’s about making everyone comfortable and you know, everyone has different limitations and that looks different for everybody.”

She draws a contrast with fight scenes: many dance companies hire fight co-ordinators to help with combative storytelling on stage, who can advise on safety and accuracy.

Choreographer Alice Topp says performers should be allowed to voice their concerns around intimate choreography.

Choreographer Alice Topp says performers should be allowed to voice their concerns around intimate choreography.Credit:Simon Schluter

“I think given that fight scenes are a physical thing, it’s strange that we haven’t thought about an intimacy coach as something that we should incorporate as well, as it’s just as much part of the storytelling,” Topp says.

“To equip the dancers with the knowledge and the skills to be able to go out there and know that they can deliver these things safely and come off (stage) really strong and fierce is really commanding for them.”

Former dancer and accredited intimacy co-ordinator Chloe Dallimore, who’s worked on productions with Opera Australia and Australian Musical Theatre Festival, says reform in dance – in several areas that don’t match up with modern society – is long overdue. Her work as an intimacy coach is about co-ordinating conversation and taking away the guesswork.

“I think really, at the core, this is a human issue. This is not just about the arts, and it’s about the fact that this wave has gone through the whole of our workplaces,” Dallimore says.

“Look at what has gone on in government in the last 12 months. This is about respecting one another as humans and not assuming that anyone whether they’re a dancer, an actor or an accountant can have their personal space intruded [upon] without being asked if that’s OK … so really, it’s just about the dance world actually moving into 2022.”

Loading

The Australian Ballet declined to comment on whether they offer intimacy coaching or support for their dancers, but other leading organisations have revealed steps forward: such as the Western Australian Ballet which noted “provocative scenes or movements are rehearsed stringently to agreed-upon choreography between all parties and are monitored by rehearsal directors with feedback sought from the artists throughout the process”.

More contemporary dance-based Sydney Dance Company (SDC) doesn’t currently outsource intimacy coaching, but its rehearsal director Richard Cilli says they have a respectful workplace policy and yearly training with the whole company.

“A lot of the time there can be a strong power dynamic in rehearsal spaces and it can have a silencing effect on people,” he says. “So our job is to actively change that culture.

Loading

“It’s a really interesting time, because it destigmatises the need to be silent in those situations [when a dancer feels uncomfortable].”

Allen says small changes, and the implementation of emotional and physical support, help her and her colleagues feel more at ease. They also create more space for vulnerability in a performance.

“I just felt like it was this really beautiful flow of communication and creativity that allowed everyone to be empowered by their decision,” Allen says.

“No one is actually putting anyone at risk and everyone feels empowered and it’s this most joyous creative space actually, because you’ve said ‘yes’.”

A cultural guide to going out and loving your city. Sign up to our Culture Fix newsletter here.

Most Viewed in Culture

Loading