Yehuda Duenyas

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Yehuda Duenyas
Yehuda Duenyas wins an Emmy.jpg
Born1974 (age 50–51) [1]
Los Angeles [1]
Occupation(s)Producer, choreographer, performer, filmmaker [2]
Years active1997 to present
Known forExperiential Director, [3] Intimacy Coordinator [4]
Notable workLove Has No Labels [3]
AwardsPrime-time Emmy [3]
Website Official website

Yehuda Duenyas [5] is a Los Angeles-based experiential director and intimacy coordinator, [6] known for being the first "sex choreographer" credited in a professional programme. [4] They [a] are the founder and creative director of Mindride, and producer of the Emmy Award winning work [3] Love Has No Labels. [2] [1]

Contents

Early life and education

Duenyas was born in Los Angeles, California, earned a Bachelor of Science, cum laude, in Theater from Skidmore College and a Master of Fine Arts in Integrated Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). In the late 1990s, Duenyas moved to New York City, where they became active in the downtown performance and experimental theater scenes. [7]

Career

Experimental theater and burlesque

From 1999 to 2009, Duenyas was a founding member of the National Theater of the United States of America (NTUSA), an OBIE Award-winning collective. During this period, Duenyas also performed under the name Duke Lafayette as a burlesque artist at The Box in New York City. [1] In the early 2010s, they toured nationally with Dita Von Teese. [2]

Intimacy coordination

Duenyas began their work in intimacy coordination in 2007 while directing Purity by Thomas Bradshaw, a play featuring explicit and emotionally charged material. [8] Duenyas developed early consent-based frameworks to protect actors physically and emotionally. [9] In 2015, Bradshaw invited Duenyas to choreograph intimate scenes for his play Fulfillment. [10] Rather than accept the title “consultant,” Duenyas requested to be credited as Sex Choreographer. [2] [1] Duenyas transitioned to intimacy work for film and television in 2016 and has since worked across most genres and formats. [5] In an interview by Newsweek, Duenyas advocated for intimacy coordination, saying "The camera may capture fiction, but the impact on the actor's body and nervous system is real. Without planning, boundaries, and oversight, productions risk causing genuine harm." [11]

Intimacy coordination select credits

Intimacy coordination for theater credits include: [5]
  • Faye Driscoll’s Weathering (NY Live Arts; The Blackwood, Toronto)
  • The Beautiful People (Rogue Machine, LA)
  • Tom Bradshaw’s Fulfillment (The Flea, NYC; ATC, Chicago).
Film and TV credits include: [5]
  • MONSTER: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story (NETFLIX);
  • Westworld S4 (HBO);
  • The Afterparty S2 (APPLE TV);
  • American Gigolo (Paramount+).

Experiential and commercial work

Beyond intimacy coordination, Duenyas works in immersive and experiential storytelling. The Ascent (2011), [12] [13] depicts an interactive installation in which participants levitate using EEG brainwave sensors. Premiered at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), the work combined neuroscience, meditation, and performance to explore themes of surrender and transcendence. [14] Duenyas has directed and designed experiences for clients including Google, YouTube, Netflix, HBO, Showtime, Audi, Spotify, MGM/UA, and Walt Disney Imagineering. [6]

Awards and recognition

Primetime Emmy Award
8 Cannes Lions
11 Clio Awards
2 Facebook Awards

In 2022, Duenyas co-founded CINTIMA (Cinematic Intimacy Artists), [7] a SAG-AFTRA accredited training program, [18] for aspiring intimacy coordinators. [19] [20]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Paumgarten, Nick (2015-10-05). "A Sex Choreographer at Work". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2023-10-23. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Cohen, Anne (2016-12-15). "Sex Choreographer Filming Theater, TV, Movie Sex Scenes". Refinery29. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Persuade & Influence / Mindride". Television Academy. Retrieved 2025-06-23.
  4. 1 2 Williams, N.J. (2024). Canonical Misogyny: Shakespeare and Dramaturgies of Sexual Violence. Edinburgh University Press. p. 191. ISBN   978-1-3995-0229-0 . Retrieved 2025-05-09. Kari Barclay names Yehuda Duenyas as the first 'sex choreographer' to be credited as such in a professional programme, in acknowlegement of his worn on Thomas Bradshaw's Fulfullment at the Flea Theater in New York in 2015.
  5. 1 2 "UNIT9 is an innovative studio". UNIT9. 2017-10-29. Archived from the original on 2024-12-04. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
  6. 1 2 "Mission". CINTIMA: Intimacy Coordinator Training. 2025-05-05. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  7. ↑ Bradshaw, T. (2007). Purity. G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Samuel French. p. 4. ISBN   978-0-573-65011-6 . Retrieved 2025-05-07.
  8. ↑ Taylor, Kelly-Anne (2021-02-05). "How does filming sex scenes work? Intimacy Coordinators explained". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 2024-07-22. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  9. ↑ Brantley, Ben (2015-09-22). "Review: Thomas Bradshaw's 'Fulfillment,' on One Man's Ceiling, and His Frustrations". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2024-06-14. Retrieved 2025-05-23.
  10. ↑ Clark, Sophie (2025-05-28). "Kevin Costner sued over "unscripted" rape scene". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 2025-05-31. Retrieved 2025-06-05.
  11. ↑ Kaminer, Ariel (2012-06-22). "'The Ascent': Levitating in Brooklyn". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2024-05-13. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  12. ↑ "Is There A Place In Human Consciousness Where Surveillance Cannot Go? Noor: A Brain Opera" (PDF). p. 175. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-10-22. Retrieved 2025-05-27.
  13. ↑ Lamont, Tom (2011-03-13). "Yehuda Duenyas's flight of fancy". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 2021-10-09. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
  14. ↑ "Persuade & Influence / Mindride". Television Academy. Archived from the original on 2025-05-09. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  15. ↑ "HOW ARE WE". Onassis Foundation. 2020-05-29. Retrieved 2025-05-20.
  16. ↑ Rocco, Claudia La (2018-04-02). "'DON JUAN'". The New York Times . Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  17. ↑ "Training Program Accreditation". SAG-AFTRA. Archived from the original on 2025-02-07. Retrieved 2025-05-12.
  18. ↑ Wilson, Jennifer (2025-06-09). "How I Learned to Become an Intimacy Coördinator". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 2025-06-13. Retrieved 2025-06-13.
  19. ↑ Beyda, Katherine (2025). The Creative Producing Handbook: An Insider's Guide to Production. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   978-1-04-034210-7 . Retrieved 2025-05-12.

Notes

  1. ↑ Duenyas uses both he/him and they/them pronouns. This article uses the latter for consistency.
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