Like any other job on this planet, there are prerequisites to being a good intimacy coordinator. There is a lot of information about it online and a lot of programs that offer to train you to become a proper intimacy coordinator. Ann James, a Black intimacy coordinator and a consent advocate is the company’s founder, The Intimacy Coordinators of Color, which trains and develops intimacy coordinators and helps them blossom in the entertainment industry.
Ann is a performer and has always been interested in the performing arts. She was inclined towards it since childhood because she felt that performing arts was the only constant in her otherwise frantic life. Being an army brat, she had to move from base to base, and she found solace in the performing arts due to her mother’s encouragement. She is forever thankful to her mother for this.
The Intimacy Coordinators of Color was made to counsel and advise performers of color for their intimate projects. Ann found this surprising that while there were many intimacy directors, there were very few from marginalized communities. Recognizing this racial divide/gap in the industry, Ann started working to fill it by providing her services in leading theaters in the country as well as on Broadway, where she was the first Black person to be credited as an intimacy coordinator.
Ann has an excellent idea of what it takes to become an intimacy coordinator. Just like there are choreographers for dances and stunts, intimacy coordinators are choreographers for the provocative and steamy scenes in movies or plays. The nature of this job is quite sensitive, so the intimacy coordinators are trained in several sensitivity programs.
Ann firmly believes that an intimacy coordinator must have all-rounded training, which should include several topics. Topics like anti-racism training, training for anti-sexual harassment, mental health and first aid certification, bystander intervention training, and cultural bias training. She is adamant about bringing all these pieces of training under one roof and establishing proper accreditation for the training of intimacy coordinators.
All this training is essential if you want to train and counsel performers to make the right decisions about their bodies and consensual performances. This will also give a helping hand to the directors on the set, as intimacy coordinators help them with sensitive details about a scene and how they can be portrayed to the general public within the boundaries of the actors. Scenes that include sensitive content and visual information can be made relevant and accessible with the help of an intimacy coordinator.
For more details on what Ann James and her team of intimacy coordinators offer, visit her website, The Intimacy Coordinators of Color.
