UP NEXT: Cosmic Docks tours to the INVERSE Performance Art Festival at The Momentary in Bentonville, AR, December 12! Get tickets & see the whole lineup here.

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Cosmic Docks is a trans tall-tale about orbiting the sources of yourself and yearning for clarity in a broken world. Choreographer and comedian Nora Sharp builds a world where personal history and sci-fi futurism intersect in the dumpster out back of a local top surgery office, eventually charting a pathway beyond story or self.

Team & Development History

CHOREOGRAPHER, WRITER, & PERFORMER: Nora Sharp

LIGHTING DESIGN: Christine Shallenberg

PROJECTION DESIGN: Ruby Que

SET DESIGN & BUILD: Bluestem Building & Restoration - Erin Bliss, Gisselle Dorado, & Bryan Saner

ORIGINAL SOUND: Nora Sharp

PERFORMANCE DEVELOPMENT: Sophie Minouche Allen, Zachary Nicol, Charlotte Long, & Will Davis

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Jessi Barber

RUNTIME: 45-75 minutes (adaptable)

PREMIERE: Spotlight Festival at the Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago, March 2025

PAST TOUR DATES: Cannonball Festival, Philadelphia, September 2025

DEVELOPMENT HISTORY: Cosmic Docks began through a residency at Hambidge in 2022. Further development support was provided by the 2023 Queer|Art Mentorship program with mentor Will Davis, the 2024 Chicago Dancemakers Forum Lab Artist Award (and their space partnership with the Ruth Page Center for the Arts), a Production Residency at the Dance Center at Columbia in early 2025, and various work-in-progress or excerpt showings Rattlestick Theater, New Dance Alliance’s Performance Mix 37, Midwest RAD Fest, bim bom studios, and the Chicago Dancemakers Forum Elevate Festival, all 2022-23.

Writing + Press

Review of the Chicago premiere by Rachel Lindsay and Corey Smith at Sixty Inches from Center

A Winter 2025 Art Pick in the Chicago Reader

Background from Nor Art newsletter

Cosmic Docks is on tour the U.S. in late 2025 thru 2026. We just finished at the Cannonball Festival in Philadelphia in September and are next headed to the INVERSE Performance Art Festival at The Momentary in Bentonville, AR in December 2025. Future dates and details are in progress - email nora.sharp@gmail.com for more information or booking inquiries.