Intimacy coordinator says nudity must always be justified

Intimacy coordinator Alice Aleksandridi told ERR’s Vikerraadio programme Huvitaja that performers’ vulnerability must be handled safely, and that productions should always ask whether nudity is justified.

Actors Kaia Skoblov and Karl-Markus Pihlakas, who play the leading roles in the bold and revealing summer production Kuuvalgel, premiering in Haapsalu, said they were strongly drawn to presenting intimacy on stage.

“It is a play by Terrence McNally that was also performed in Estonia many years ago. We met director Helen Rekkor, started looking, and found this play, which immediately attracted us with its intimacy and closeness,” Pihlakas said. The production also uses headphones to bring that intimacy closer to the audience.

Skoblov said the play explores fear of closeness and whether people trust others enough to let them near. She added that she would not have accepted the role if she had been unwilling to perform intimate scenes.

“I read the material and found that it was a story worth making because these themes spoke to me very strongly,” she said.

Pihlakas said society had become more open toward such subjects and wanted to see that reflected on the theatre stage. Skoblov described the production as a moving story about two people that could affect everyone.

The actors said they managed the intimate scenes themselves and did not need an intimacy coordinator. Aleksandridi said the coordinator works between the performer and the production to help artists do their work safely and comfortably while enabling the production to communicate its intended idea and message.

She said intimacy covered all situations in which a performer was vulnerable, including simulated sex, medical or hospital scenes, racism and scenes involving minors.

Aleksandridi trained for the profession in the United States and France. She studied law after secondary school and has also worked as a choreographer at her own dance studio. She described the role as a combination of choreography and law.

According to Aleksandridi, the profession developed in response to situations in which performers were not adequately protected. She cited examples of actors struggling with violent simulated rape scenes and of a male actor failing to realise that his female co-star had experienced rape shortly before filming began.

“An actor is, first and foremost, a person. What happens in your everyday life also comes with you to the set,” she said.

Aleksandridi said an intimacy coordinator did not impose rules but helped create a comfortable situation for everyone. One basic question when reviewing a script was whether the scene could be done differently and whether nudity was necessary to convey the message.

“If the answer is yes, we move forward and work out how it can be done,” she said. “You must always ask whether nudity is justified.”