The Real Dance: A Micro Reality TV Show is a web series that approaches contemporary dancemaking through the low-stakes, high-investment aesthetic & entertainment lens of reality TV, focusing on the daily lives, dramas, and backstories of people who make dance.

The Real Dance has been supported by Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the Pivot Arts Festival, who commissioned Episode 1 in 2021 and premiered Episode 2 in 2022. Streaming contracts include SIDE STREET TV and Open TV; festival screenings include Midwest RAD Fest 2022 and Elevate Chicago Dance 2022. Learn more about this series in The Process Podcast with host Alyssa Gregory and co-host Tia Greer. Both episodes are open-captioned; audio description for Episode 2 is in development.

Episode 2 (2022)

Episode 2 follows the process of Nora Sharp & Grace McCants creating a new dance duet that explores codependence and interdependence at the intersection of relationships and artmaking.

Co-directed, co-created, & co-edited by Grace McCants & Nora Sharp

Cinematography by Bea Cabrera, Sydney Sullivan, and Spence Warren

Assistant editor: Sydney Sullivan

Audio description pending, in collaboration with Victor Cole

Soundtrack: Yuri; Gloria Ann Taylor w/ writers Ben Raleigh & David Linden (Courtesy of Ubiquity Recordings, Inc., Wise Brothers Music LLC ASCAP, & Wixen Music Publishing obo Rawlou Music BMI. All Rights Reserved)

Premiered at the Pivot Arts Festival + IN/MOTION Dance Film Festival 2022, additional screening at Elevate Chicago Dance 2022

This project is partially supported by an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Episode 1 (2021)

Episode 1, for which the series title was chosen, follows 5 movement performers through their creative process over the course of 1 month. This is the true story of five dancers, forced to live in their houses, dance (mostly) alone, and have their improvisations taped, to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start moving for real.

Starring Christina Chammas, Jenn Freeman | Po’Chop, Irene Hsiao, and Dorian Vanunu

Directed, edited by, & co-starring Nora Sharp

Original score: Dorian Vanunu

Assistant editor: Sydney Sullivan

Cinematography by the cast & Sydney Sullivan

Commissioned by & premiered via the Pivot Arts Festival 2021

Screened at Midwest RAD Fest 2022

This project is partially supported by an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency, a state agency through federal funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.