Who we are …

The Fly Honeys are a femme-powered, queer punk performance project shaking ass + celebrating body, sex and self. Born from Chicago’s underground, they are creative shape-shifters — pulling in burlesque, cabaret, variety, music and comedy through high-energy choreography, grand spectacle, and a rotating cast of nationally lauded artists. 

Since establishing their annual landmark production The Fly Honey Show in 2010, they have fiercely provoked audiences into sweaty, sticky, radical euphoric experiences of self-love. Touted as a Chicago Institution and voted Best Dance Producer by the Chicago Reader, The Fly Honeys (and their Hive) cultivate a fiercely empowered community: a high-kicking cast, an expansive rotating ensemble of novice and experienced dancers alike, as well as premiere, outstanding performance artists.

Now Chicago legends, they are faithfully recognized for their queer-celeberatory, glitter-bombing, femme-powered, & unabashed ass shaking performances. Their iconic performances are genre/gender-bending; where pleasure is king and politics favor the queens.

Most recently, their 4-night residency at rock venue Thalia Hall in 2023 drew thousands of audiences + partygoers. They have been voted the best dance production of 2022 in the Chicago Reader’s Best of Chicago.

What We’re All About …

The Fly Honeys elevate women, transwomen, and gender non-binary and non-conforming, and queer communities to empower the body to speak and the voice to act. We bring together a wide range of perspectives within our world and our work to question expected norms of the body, sex, gender and identity.

Through a culture of support and authenticity, The Fly Honeys acknowledge that cities are not built in a day and that change doesn't happen overnight. Through celebrating yourself and your neighbor, you create a ripple effect that can create change.

Inspired by and with reverence to variety show culture and burlesque practices, The Fly Honeys present carefully curated and specifically designed, narrated, and supported performance works that enhance the audience’s understanding of what a variety event is capable of accomplishing - and what individuals are capable of accomplishing. No matter the venue, we bring high-quality and high-energy production and performance with us.

Honey History…

The Fly Honeys began as the brain-child of dance artist, space-maker and performance producer Erin Kilmurray in a loft space of the then-underground Chicago arts organization The Inconvenience in 2009.

Envisioning a project that promoted the talented women creating within her community, Kilmurray and founding artists Mary Williamson (writer, host), Shannon Matesky (writer, performer), John Cicora (music director, band leader, composer), and Missi Davis (producer, general manager), devised, choreographed, curated, and organized a monumental one-night event with 30 performers for an audience of 200 people, and it hasn’t stopped evolving since.

For 10 years The Fly Honeys hosted a grand, raucous annual event that compounded each year in every way - performing at various venues around Chicago - growing to present 400+ artists to thousands of patrons in a month+ long, sold-out, sweaty summertime run - now an award winning project touted as a “Chicago Institution” by the Chicago Reader.

Want the Fly Honeys to come to your town? Give us a buzz.