NMSU theatre students, faculty learn from a professional choreographer

Professional intimacy coordinator Chelsea Pace returned to New Mexico State University in April to conduct workshops with Theatre Department students and faculty and help cast members prepare for their roles in an upcoming production.

Pace conducted a “Consent in the Classroom” workshop for theatre faculty, worked with the cast of “Godspell” during two rehearsals and presented “Introduction to Intimacy” to theatre students at the ASNMSU Center for the Arts.

Working with directors and actors at NMSU and at theatres and with movie and television productions across the country, Pace’s goal is to find and choreograph a script’s intimate moments to help actors and directors tell a better story. She also guides actors to recognize their personal boundaries when it comes to portraying intimacy on stage or screen and to respect the boundaries of other actors.

“Think about what the characters need, why they’re doing what they’re doing,” Pace tells actors and directors. “Love, lust, joy – why is it valid to the story?”

And storytelling is important to every audience, she said.

“Humans are meaning-making creatures,” Pace said. “We look for meaning.”

But, in staging intimacy, Pace said, “There are no universal rules. It’s really different every time.”

The first step for her is to become familiar with the script she is working on – finding intimate moments that might include nudity, kissing, hugging, sexual contact, even sexual violence, and other deep connections between characters and between the actors who are portraying them.

She also gets to know the actors and director she is working with and their audience.  

For example, an intimate moment might be choreographed differently on Broadway than it would be at NMSU or at North Dakota State University in Fargo, where Pace served as assistant professor of movement and fight choreographer. And, a student actor might feel differently about how he performs an intimate scene if his parents are in the audience.

“Chelsea Pace is the preeminent authority in her field of staging intimacy, having worked on Broadway, regional theatres and on film and TV productions,” said NMSU Theatre Department Head Wil Kilroy, who is directing “Godspell.” “Our students were able to benefit from Chelsea's vast knowledge and skill as she taught classes and coached actors,” he said.

“I am very grateful for what Chelsea Pace gave me – a language and structure to protect myself and others while making me a more reliable and dynamic actress,” said Jenna Ivey, who was part of the cast of the NMSU’s 2019 production of “Silent Sky,” for which Pace also provided intimacy coaching.

“I had never heard of intimacy education before,” Ivey said, and when I learned what it was, I thought, ‘This is brilliant. We need more of it.’ I got to see first-hand how effective it was through the performance of my fellow actors in ‘Silent Sky.’ I use the concepts and language of theatrical intimacy in every film and stage performance I do to ensure a safer environment for me and my colleagues, and a better performance.”

Pace’s work has included studio and independent films, working with directors Ethan Cohen and George Clooney, television productions that include “The Equalizer” and “A League of Their Own” and academic and regional theatre and Broadway productions, including the Tony award-winning musical “Strange Loop.”

Pace is co-founder and head faculty of Theatre Intimacy Education, “a consulting group specializing in researching, developing and teaching best practices for staging theatrical intimacy,” according to www.chelseapace.com.

Pace has an MFA in performance from the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University and a BA in music from Binghamton University. She received The Kennedy Center gold medallion in 2021 for her work “revolutionizing rehearsal rooms and classroom spaces by implementing systems that center the most vulnerable" and for "bringing never-ending clarity and practicality to the art and process of intimacy direction," according to www.theatricalintimacyed.com.

Pace is the author of “Staging Sex: Best Practices, Tools, and Techniques for Theatrical Intimacy,” published in 2020. It has been adopted by university theatre, dance and film programs and professional training programs internationally, Pace said.

Visit www.chelseapace.com.