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.

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 lets on.