The Dance Cartel to Bring Energy-Busting Experience ONTHEFLOOR to OBERON

OBERON, the American Repertory Theater's (A.R.T.) Second Stage and club theater venue, presents ONTHEFLOOR, created and performed by The Dance Cartel. Performances will be held on Thursday, April 27 and Friday, April 28 at OBERON, 2 Arrow St, Cambridge.

Performance dates and times: Thursday, April 27 and Friday, April 28 at 8PM. Press opening: Thursday, April 27 at 8PM. Tickets from $25 in advance, tickets from $30 at the door. Now on sale by phone at 617.547.8300, in person at the American Repertory Theater Ticket Services (64 Brattle St), or online at americanrepertorytheater.org/ONTHEFLOOR.

Driven equally by pumping bass, glitter, dance heroism and feats of endurance, this 90-minute, energy-busting experience is part dance, part video installation, part DJ set and part concert. The show will feature local artists DJ Colby Drasher (Don't Ask Don't Tell) on April 27 and DJ Begbick (Controversy, #Yaasss!, FOXY) on April 28 alongside Grooversity and Niki Luparelli (Strip Zeppelin, Oh You Pretty Things!)

The Dance Cartel is after a new brand of dance experience. Taking note of a dance community that often serves a niche audience, The Dance Cartel creates dances that are vibrant, immersive and often participatory. Without sacrificing technical rigor or artistic ambition as a Dance Company, we endeavor to employ the social nature of dance, the charge of a party, and the sharpness of a music video to a fresh dance vocabulary that any Joe can get down with.

ONTHEFLOOR includes The Dance Cartel members Alexandra Albrecht, nicHi douglas, Thomas Gibbons, Audrey Hailes, Sunny Hitt, and Ani Taj. Co-directed by Morgan Green, original production co-directed by Sam Pinkleton, projections designed by Stephen Stivo Arnoczy, sound design by John Albano, music produced by DJ Average Jo, dancing outfits by David Hyman, dancing hair by Amanda Power, and dancing face by Kelli J. Bartlett.

Additional Programming:

A Dance Workshop with Ani Taj - April 10 at 6PM at the Loeb Drama Center
FREE - RSVP required in advance at americanrepertorytheater.org

Equal parts rigor and silliness, Ani Taj (Artistic Director and Choreographer of ONTHEFLOOR)'s class is a high-energy, physically-demanding 90 minutes including an upbeat warm-up, hot conditioning, brief improvisation, and substantial choreography sequences from The Dance Cartel's repertory. Designed to challenge both trained dancers and enthusiastic novices, the class fuses technical elements from jazz/contemporary with hype energy and a low center of gravity. Technical precision and energetic intent are given equal priority, encouraging students to heighten their expressivity and dynamics as well as stretch their physical ability.

The music will be loud and will sometimes have dirty words. You will probably sweat. Expect to get your heart rate up, and bring a clean shirt if you need to look cute after class. Sense of play and humor are encouraged, but only if you want to have a good time.

Ani Taj (Artistic Director & Choreographer) is a choreographer, performer, music-head and founder of The Dance Cartel. Ani choreographs art parties, music videos, contemporary musicals, plays, concerts, flash mobs, gallery happenings and more. Her work is fueled by research trips to Brazil and loves to make dances inspired by Carnaval. While bridging gaps between dance and music scenes, Ani keeps one foot in the world of live theatre and experimental musicals. Recent projects include Runaways (New York City Center), Lazarus (NYTW), Noir (New York Stage & Film), Good Men Wanted (Arena Stage, Ars Nova), and Jesse Eisenberg's Asuncion (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater). As a performer, Ani has worked with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Les Freres Crobusier, David Dorfman Dance, Reggie Watts & Tommy Smith, Jenny Koons, Liz Swados. She is currently performing with Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 on Broadway. She is an Adjunct Professor of movement and dance at New York University.

Morgan Green (Co-Director) is a nice person and theater director/co-founder of the Brooklyn-based company, New Saloon. Most recently, her work was seen at The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival Incoming! Series, a production of MINOR CHARACTER: Six Translations of Uncle Vanya at the Same Time. Other recent works include I'm Miserable but Change Scares Me by Milo Cramer (The Brick) and MOMS by Sarah DeLappe (Engarde Arts BOSS Festival). Morgan is the Associate Director for Amelié: A New Musical currently on Broadway. She is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, an alumni of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab and Williamstown Theater Festival Directing Resident at Playwrights Horizons. This summer she will be directing three shows at the Sharon Playhouse in Sharon, Connecticut in their first ever "Director Driven" season.

Sam Pinkleton (Co-Director) is a director and choreographer based in New York City. Born and bred in an untamed corner of the American South, Sam has created and developed new theatre, opera, and dance with The Vineyard Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, The Public Theater, Joe's Pub, Ars Nova, Dixon Place, Primary Stages, City Theatre, and La MaMa. Sam is Choreographer for Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 at A.R.T. and on Broadway, Associate Director for the Broadway production of Nicky Silver's The Lyons, and is a member of internationally acclaimed dance-theater company Witness Relocation. He teaches a series of lowbrow dance classes at New York University and is currently working on a number of new plays, dances, music videos, and parties.

Alexandra Albrecht is a freelance dance artist based in New York City. She has collaborated and performed with Hilary Easton, Natalie Green, Ryan McNamara, Jillian Peña, Stacy Grossfield Sperling, and Ani Taj/The Dance Cartel, among others. She appeared on Conan (2013) and The Late Late Show (2015) with Reggie Watts and The Dance Cartel. She was a dancer for the Bessie Schoenberg Choreographic Residency at The Yard in the Summer of 2007 and curated Dance at The Tank from 2009-2012. Alexandra moonlights as a personal chef. She holds a BFA in Dance and a BA in Journalism from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and College of Arts and Science.

nicHi douglas is an actor, dancer, choreographer and writer. She has performed all over New York and the US as an actor/dancer in the freelance capacity, in addition to performing nationally with The Dance Cartel and literacy-focused children's company The Story Pirates. She currently teaches Movement and Choreography in at New York University's Tish Drama Department - Playwright's Horizon Theatre School studio. Recent/Upcoming credits: Blue Plate Special (Ars Nova ANT fest, Choreographer), Runaways (New York City Center, Associate Choreographer), Pharma Bro: An American Douchical (The Player's Theater, Choreographer). Education: BFA in Drama, NYU; MFA in Creative Writing, The New School.

Thomas Gibbons is a native Bostonian multidisciplinary artist whose work applies performance and dance tenets to fashion, photography, film and design. Recent collaborators include Band of Outsiders, Document Journal, MiLK Group, Tom Ford, NOWNESS, Vogue Ukraine and artists Penny Arcade, Ryan McNamara, Sigrid Lauren and Anne Imhof. His choreographic work, Every Man's Home Is His Wife's Castle, has been shown at Triskelion Arts, Dixon Place and Brooklyn Studios for Dance. Graduate of NYU.

Audrey Elaine Hailes is a dance-theatre artist raised in Washington, DC. Committed to public performance as a necessary tool for wellness and revolution, she received a BFA in Experimental Theatre from NYU and is a 2013 Laundromat Create Change Fellow. Audrey is a teaching artist, performer with The Dance Cartel and co-host of the women-run radio show "Hip Hop and Her Family." Her work was recently commissioned by Gibney Dance and Dance Theatre Etc.

Sunny Hitt is a NYC-based performer and teaching artist. She currently teaches movement classes at Playwrights Horizons Theater School at NYU and at Abrons Arts Center. In 2014 she performed the iconic solo Heartbeat at the Gramercy Theater, originally conceived by sound artist/architect Christopher Janney (MIT, Janney Sound/PhenomenArts) and choreographer Sara Rudner. In 2015 Sunny performed with the ensemble of The Tempest, as part of The Public Theater's Free Shakespeare in the Park. She is also a certified yoga instructor, coffee junkie, and avid cyclist. Sunny has been a proud member of The Dance Cartel since 2013.

OBERON is the American Repertory Theater's Second Stage, a destination for theater and nightlife on the fringe of Harvard Square. In addition to offering work from the A.R.T.'s main season, OBERON is also a thriving incubator for local, emerging and celebrated artists to imagine new projects that could only exist in this exciting club-theater environment. Thousands of artists and performance groups bring work to the space each year. OBERON regularly features local performers including aerialists, beat poets, food artists, tap dancers, gender-bending sketch troupes, comedians, hula-hooping burlesquers, and pop-and-lock human statues to name a few.

OBERON is located at 2 Arrow Street at the corner of Mass Ave. in Harvard Square, Cambridge. For tickets, call 617.547.8300, or visit cluboberon.com.