Julia DeSpain / Little Village
THE SEX ISSUE!
Making Love A peek into the brave new world of intimacy choreography. BY EMMA MCCLATCHEY
“T
hey kiss,” reads the stage direction. But how long? Which character makes the first move? Are we talking hands on the face, shoulder, waist? Is the kiss more tender or sensual? Directors and actors are often left to prescribe or improvise this blocking, but, much like a bumbled fight scene, poor communication and choreography can lead to an unconvincing performance and discomfort between the actors. When it comes to sex scenes, the risks are even higher. Enter Audra Yokley. Yokley is an intimacy choreographer, trained to help casts and crews stage scenes of intimacy—everything from handholding and heated eye contact to simulated sex—with a focus on consent, safety and nuanced storytelling. In January, Iowa City
Community Theatre brought the Chicago-based Yokley in for a workshop in conjunction with their upcoming production of the musical Company (opening
loved theater movement work, and I have a background as a massage therapist. I was actually looking around for fight/stage combat kinds of classes and ran across an Intimacy for the Stage workshop hosted by Intimacy Directors International co-founder Tonia Sina in Oklahoma City. It just dawned on me: I can’t believe this has never been a thing,
and encouraging enthusiastic consent: talking with your scene partner, finding out where they don’t want to be touched and being able to build a relationship on that, knowing what their boundaries are so that when you begin working together, you know you’re not crossing a line with your partner.
I think there’s a perception that actors give themThe wonderful thing about choreographing selves to the art— there’s no such these scenes is the exact opposite of what thing as boundaries when a play I think critics fear, which is that the actual requires you to perform a certain sexiness or the real chemistry will be lost thing. How do you balance the because it will become robotic. needs of the play with the personal comfort of the actors? That’s a March 6). Little Village caught and of course it should be a continued narrative that’s being up with Yokley shortly after. thing. It was maybe two months fought every single day in this after the #MeToo movement hit, field. That’s what intimacy work How did you become an intiand it just sounded so fascinatis all about. It’s about proving macy choreographer? About ing. I went, and I loved it. that, yes, you can still make great two years ago or so, I was a new art and you don’t have to suffer mom and I wanted to find my What does a workshop entail? for it, [including] giving up way back into my own body. I I’m defining what consent means
16 Feb. 5–18, 2020 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV278
