Nora Alami is an experimental dance artist and PhD student in Performance Studies with a Mellon Fellowship in Middle East and North African Studies at Northwestern University. For the last decade, Nora has worked in New York as a dance-maker and creative producer supporting festivals, collectives, non-profits, and independent artists. Her artistic works research the trappings of nostalgia and desire for a sense of belonging never quite experienced. She joins disparate realities through sensuality, absurdity, and materiality.
She is a 2025 danceWEB Scholar, 2024 MANCC Forward Dialogues Artist, and 2023-2024 CUNY Dance Initiative Artist. She earned a B.A. in Psychology at Colorado College, with a minor in Philosophy and holds a Masters degree in Performance Studies from Northwestern University. She is the 2025 recipient of the Robert S. and Gertrude B. Breen Memorial Award in Performance Studies.
Nora’s graduate research at Northwestern theorizes the erotic and alterity at sites of experimental dance-making and performance. Creating her own artistic work and collaborating as a creative producer moved her to investigate how artists negotiate their own desires with the desires of the audience, curator, and funder.
