IDC Choreography for Stage & Screen 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: An intimacy coordinator's choreography notes are subpoenaed in a harassment lawsuit. This scenario highlights the importance of:
- Maintaining accurate, factual, and professional documentation from the outset of production (Correct answer)
- Destroying notes at the end of production to protect performer privacy
- Using only verbal communication to avoid creating a paper trail
- Delegating all documentation responsibilities to the production legal team
Correct answer: Maintaining accurate, factual, and professional documentation from the outset of production
Professional documentation serves as both a choreographic record and a legal protection; it must be accurate and professionally maintained from day one.
Question 2: When working on a historical drama requiring period-accurate intimacy staging that conflicts with contemporary consent practices, an intimacy coordinator should:
- Prioritize contemporary consent practices while using choreography and camera work to achieve the period-accurate aesthetic (Correct answer)
- Replicate historical practices as written in the script without modification
- Refuse to work on period productions entirely
- Let the director make all decisions without coordinator input on historical scenes
Correct answer: Prioritize contemporary consent practices while using choreography and camera work to achieve the period-accurate aesthetic
Historical accuracy in storytelling never overrides the modern duty of care; skilled choreography can achieve period aesthetics within safe contemporary frameworks.
Question 3: A production assistant accidentally walks onto a closed set during an intimate scene rehearsal. The intimacy coordinator should:
- Pause the rehearsal, ask the PA to leave, and ensure the set is properly closed before resuming (Correct answer)
- Continue the rehearsal to maintain the performers' momentum
- Report the PA to HR immediately without pausing the scene
- Ask the performers if they want to continue—if they say yes, proceed without addressing the breach
Correct answer: Pause the rehearsal, ask the PA to leave, and ensure the set is properly closed before resuming
A closed set is a consent condition; any breach must immediately pause the scene and be corrected before work resumes, regardless of performer verbal assent.
Question 4: In the IDC framework, 'desensitization creep' refers to:
- The gradual erosion of a performer's boundaries through repeated small escalations over rehearsal that go unchallenged (Correct answer)
- The process by which performers become more comfortable with intimate material through legitimate rehearsal
- A camera technique that slowly zooms into an intimate scene
- The normalization of intimacy coordinators on set over time
Correct answer: The gradual erosion of a performer's boundaries through repeated small escalations over rehearsal that go unchallenged
Desensitization creep occurs when incremental escalations accumulate into boundary violations that no single step would have produced alone, requiring active monitoring.
Question 5: Which rehearsal tool do intimacy coordinators commonly use to help performers identify and communicate their physical boundaries before choreography begins?
- Body mapping or boundary visualization exercises where performers define touch zones on a body outline (Correct answer)
- Mandatory psychological evaluations administered before casting
- Standardized boundary questionnaires completed by the director on performers' behalf
- Video recordings of previous performers in similar roles used as templates
Correct answer: Body mapping or boundary visualization exercises where performers define touch zones on a body outline
Body mapping exercises give performers a low-stakes, visual method to define and communicate which areas of their body are available for touch in the work.
Question 6: An intimacy coordinator is asked to work on a production that requires simulated sexual violence. The additional ethical obligations include:
- Providing trauma-informed care resources, ensuring heightened consent check-ins, designing clear choreography that never escalates beyond agreed limits, and advocating for trigger warnings for performers and crew (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Providing trauma-informed care resources, ensuring heightened consent check-ins, designing clear choreography that never escalates beyond agreed limits, and advocating for trigger warnings for performers and crew
Scenes depicting sexual violence require the highest level of care including trauma-informed approaches, access to support resources, and absolute choreographic precision.
Question 7: The 'intimacy coordinator as advocate vs. production employee' tension is most likely to arise when:
- A producer pressures the coordinator to overlook a performer's stated boundary in order to meet a shooting deadline (Correct answer)
- The coordinator recommends a scene be rewritten for creative reasons
- A performer requests a rehearsal break for personal reasons
- The director and coordinator disagree about blocking aesthetics
Correct answer: A producer pressures the coordinator to overlook a performer's stated boundary in order to meet a shooting deadline
The core ethical tension occurs when production interests (time, budget) conflict with performer wellbeing; coordinators must ultimately advocate for the performer.
IDC Choreography for Stage & Screen 5
An intimacy coordinator's choreography notes are subpoenaed in a harassment lawsuit.
This scenario highlights the importance of: