Dance Arts Center Dance Arts Center Presents (Blue)

Dance arts center is a maximalist, genre-bending music and performance project by Los Angeles-based artist Nicolette Norgaard. Driven by dance music and rooted in storytelling, DAC is where club meets theater, and the performer's soul meets the producer's toolkit. Norgaard, a Bay Area native, found the stage early. At just six years old, she lied her way into a community theater production of A Christmas Carol, the youngest in a 50-person cast spanning generations. She returned every year for seven seasons, entranced by the strange, wonderful community and sacred traditions of theater. It wasn't just her first taste of performing, it was her first brush with a culture she latched onto instinctively: the gaudy and glamorous, slightly dusty world of old theater and Broadway lore.Meanwhile, music was a constant. Her father, who still plays in the classic rock band he formed in high school, exposed her to songwriting and musicianship. As a teenager, Nicolette gravitated toward genre-defying artists like Joni Mitchell, Björk, Gorillaz, Kate Bush, and Lana Del Rey- songwriters and sound architects who used music as a narrative medium. She wrote songs mostly in private, played in a few low-stakes bands, but always prioritized theater. Shortly after studying theater at UCLA and launching a career as an actor, her creative world paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the stage dark and the industry in flux, Norgaard turned toward music. Teaching herself production in Ableton Live, she started learning to make songs sound the way they felt in her head, sonically influenced by being immersed in LA's nightlife and creative community. dance arts center was born from a double-blow of disruption: the 2023 SAG/WGA strikes and a breakup. Reeling and creatively restless, Norgaard and her best friend (and frequent collaborator) Sara Silva sublet an apartment in NYC and decided to focus on making music for a month. That summer became a period of reflection and experimentation with sound and identity. When Silva returned to her acting career, Norgaard took the project forward solo, producing the songs and shaping them into something bigger: an immersive, character-driven universe where dance music and narrative storytelling collide.Her debut release, dance arts center presents, is a concept mixtape styled like a fictional Broadway cast recording, complete with an overture and entr'acte. It explores how we perform within relationships, costume ourselves emotionally, shape-shift for love, and how the show sometimes doesn't end even when the curtain falls. Sonically, it lives in a world of synth-heavy, groove-driven dance music tinged with indie pop sensibilities and thoughtful songwriting. Each song is a story, and each beat carries something heavier than it let's on.But DAC isn't just recorded music; it's an evolving live performance experience. Norgaard brings the project to the stage with the precision of a trained performer and the freedom of someone who came-of-age on the dance floor. The live show is theatrical, narrative-driven, playful and self-aware. She calls it "deconstructed theater", using Fosse-inspired choreography, personas, metafiction, and skits to create something that pushes the boundaries of what music and theater are "supposed" to be. In Fall of 2025, dance arts center presents will be released - the debut LP from DAC. The project encapsulates years of effort in different fields culminating in a project that bends together dance music and theater aesthetics with ease. DAC represents the modern artist who is not afraid to take on a vast spectrum of roles in making art which, in the end, reveals a project that is so singular in it's voice that it feels much less like a debut and much like a fifth LP from a seasoned vet.