Knockout

• • 3ARTS MATCH
  • 108% contributed

STRETCH GOAL!!! Wow! Thanks to your incredible support, we have reached our initial fundraising goal! With the time we've got left, we are pushing to hit a final-round stretch goal of $7,500. For context, this would cover the full touring costs to bring Knockout to Minneapolis. Not only will artist touring fees be supported but we can now secure the remaining costs to produce this production. This includes artist rehearsal fees, equipment and studio rental, travel and housing, and promotional support. With your help, we'll get Knockout to the Twin Cities. Thank you for believing in independent work!" 

Knockout is a fierce, femme, contemporary dance duet created and performed by Erin Kilmurray and Kara Brody, recognized as “two of Chicago's most captivating performers” by Chicago Tribune. Exploring a multiverse of queer dimensions, Knockout is a high-octane choreographic collage that unfolds through cinematic landscapes, sonic atmospheres, and relationships that sidestep tidy categorization. Having premiered at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater in January 2025, the work is beginning its touring life at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis this July 2026. Contributions to this touring fund will directly support artists fees, rising travel costs, accommodations.

About This Project

Knockout is an hour-long contemporary dance work driven by ferocious physicality, cinematic landscapes, and a nonlinear narrative between two women. Through athletic choreography and slow-burning tension, the piece explores queer dimensions that feel both deeply relatable and emotionally complex. Inspired by film editing techniques that manipulate time and perspective, Knockout lives in the messy space between attraction and danger, strength and survival, family and friendship, action and inertia—challenging not only what we see, but how we see it.

The project originated as a 12-minute duet commissioned by The Cambrians’ Chicago Dances project in 2020. Kara Brody and Erin Kilmurray had long crossed paths in Chicago’s dance community before discovering a shared movement language rooted in athleticism, tension, camp, and tenderness. Early research centered on “girl-on-girl” fight sequences collaged with femme fatale aesthetics, eventually uncovering layered themes of power, play, and intimacy.

During this process they began collaborating with sound designer Corey Smith, whose work expanded the project’s emotional and cinematic world. Sound—and eventually lighting by Liz Gomez —became integral to the evolving Knockout universe. Encouraged by strong community response, the artists continued developing the work over five years, culminating in a sold out, six show premiere run at Steppenwolf’s 1700 Theater in 2025.

Now a fully realized production, Knockout is entering its next phase through touring. The work will make its Twin Cities premiere at Red Eye Theater in Minneapolis on July 11–12, 2026. This campaign supports that next lifespan for the project by helping fund artist fees for the performances and building relationships with partners and venues for future touring opportunities.

The touring team includes Erin Kilmurray and Kara Brody (lead artists/performers), Corey Smith (sound designer/performer), and Bran Moorhead (production stage manager), with original collaborators Katrina Dion (co-direction/dramaturgy), Liz Gomez (lighting design), and Mary Williamson (costume design).

Live dance deserves to be experienced more than once, in different spaces and alongside different communities. Supporting Knockout helps independent artists sustain and share ambitious live performance beyond a single production run. It also uplifts the vibrant dance ecology of the Midwest and the artists working to strengthen connections across regional performance communities.

Thank yous

Contribute any amount or choose from the levels below.

• $25
  Thank you video from TEAM KNOCKOUT with Blooper Reel ($25.00 is tax deductible.)
• $50
  Handwritten postcard from Kara + Erin from Minnesota ($45.00 is tax deductible.)
• $100
  Knockout inspired mixtape created by sound designer Corey Smith ($50.00 is tax deductible.)
• $250
  Print of Knockout show poster desgined by Izzi Vasquez ($240.00 is tax deductible.)
• $500
  Poster + Invitation to our final dress rehearsal on June 23 ($490.00 is tax deductible.)
• $1000
  Studio Visit + Lunch with Artists as the reward. ($900.00 is tax deductible.)

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Erin Kilmurray

Make a Wave Artist

Erin Kilmurray is a performer, choreographer, and teaching artist whose work is strongly influenced by dance and performance places acting as creative and social centers. Drawing upon a contemporary dance practice, space-making, and a long-standing relationship with theater and nightlife …

View Erin Kilmurray's profile

• 1 update
• 56 supporters

• Update 1: KO! Gloves Up, Goal Down!

  Posted on June 26, 2026

  

   

  Sending around a little update : 

  We hit our original $6K goal (with the help of the 3Arts $2K match!), and wow wow wow are we feeling good! 

   

  With the time we've got left (two weeks!) we are pushing to hit a final-round stretch goal of $10,000 to cover the full cost of touring. We know support looks a lot of different ways + donating is just one of them.  Thanks for being in our corner—whether you're donating, sharing, and/or rooting us on x

   

  We sure hope to make Chicago proud on this journey.  

   

  Big love, 

   

  Erin + Kara  + Team KO

• Thank you to the following for contributing to 3Arts with the recommendation that we support this project.

  • Anonymous Supporter

  • Cristal Sabbagh

  • Camila Rivero Pooley

  • Jeff Hancock

  • Allison Law

  • Joanna Furnans

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