First-of-its-kind Intimacy Practice degree cancelled

In a widely publicised announcement earlier this year, Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts launched the world’s first university-validated degree in Intimacy Practice, run by industry leader Ita O’Brien. Just two months before the course was due to begin, the MFA programme has been cancelled. 

With a programme covering intimacy choreography and how to make sets safer for performers, the course was designed in partnership with O’Brien’s company Intimacy on Set – but has since been cancelled prior to accepting its first intake of students. Prospective students were informed of the cancellation just days before a planned recall workshop in London. 

On the cancellation, a spokesperson from the school says: ‘We regret to announce that we are unable to offer the previously announced MFA Intimacy Practice. Various logistical challenges mean we can no longer offer this course at Mountview.’ 

The school has confirmed that no student had officially been offered a place on the course, and that the recall workshop was part of the application process. 

Charlotte Castle, Mountview’s director of advancement told Variety (who broke the story) that ‘the recall was cancelled once the logistical issues became apparent’ and that the school informed everyone who was due to attend at the ‘earliest possible opportunity’. She adds ‘we regret any inconvenience caused’. 

One student, as Variety reports, was due to travel from North America for the recall workshop. Stating the workshop organisers have ‘broken a lot of trust’, she was informed of the cancellation only four days before her booked flight to the UK. ‘They shouldn’t have rushed this,’ says the student, adding: ‘no one would have faulted them if they started next year instead of this year.’ 

Mountview has not yet announced whether it plans to run the course in future.