Intimacy/Intimidation

Intimacy/Intimidation investigates the tension between the desire for closeness and intimacy on the one hand, and the intimidating nature of that very proximity on the other. It explores diverse forms of intimacy, stretching from the overt to those that frequently go unnoticed. In this context, intimacy is both generated and challenged—amongst the performers, and between the performers and the audience-participants. The project asks: what might or might not occur when the boundaries between the desired and the unnerving are broken?

Beginning with a deep research process, the project supports the creation of a visceral, intimate new dance-performance piece featuring two performers who explore varying strategies and intensities of closeness. Whilst minimalist and technically simple, the performance space is continuously modified as the audience is invited to move closer to or further away from the performers, exercising their own choice and "curatorial agency" to shape their unique experience. The performers engage with distinct tasks: some revolve around their relationship to one another, allowing the audience to witness the unfolding dynamics between two people, whilst others are carefully crafted to navigate the desire for proximity against the need to avoid intimidation with the audience.

Choreographer/Artist Israel Aloni is interested in working through various types of intimacy, extending far beyond the sensual or sexual. Rooted in Aloni’s interdisciplinary practice (The I.Aloni Experience)—which converges movement (body-space-time), psychoanalysis, and philosophy—intimacy is articulated as a "triple collapse":

• The collapse of meaning: when we cease searching for explanations and definitions of what we are experiencing;

• The collapse of the self: when we are no longer preoccupied with performing an ideation of who we perceive ourselves to be;

• The collapse of chronological time: when the experience transports us to a past or future moment, stretching the present beyond detectable limits, and where a moment is no longer a mere vehicle for the next, freed from its impending expiration.

With these findings, the research continues to seek embodiments and compositions that unpack this concept further.

This piece is a co-production between Skånes Dansteater and ilDance. Its initial research residency (May 2026) was hosted at Danscentrum Syd and funded by Konstnärsnämnden (the Swedish Arts Grants Committee).

This video is from the work-in-progress sharing of the piece at the ilDance Event in May 2026.