ANI TAJ NIEMANN
CHOREOGRAPHER DANCER PERFORMER
Bio- THE DANCE CARTEL
- REEL & work samples
- Past Projects Gallery
- Teaching: The Dance Dancing Dance Company, Notes in Motion
- Upcoming
- Contact
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Bio
ANI TAJ NIEMANN
A native New Yorker, Ani is a choreographer and performer who makes dances to anything from Fred Astaire soundtracks to TLC albums. In recent years she has choreographed new musicals, experimental theatre, live music videos, 90’s photo shoots, and concert dance pieces. 2010 marked the launch of her new company, the Dance Cartel, which premiered its first evening-length work at The Tank (NYC) in the spring of 2011. Recent choreography credits include Wanderlust (BjorkBall, Studio A.I.R.), Asuncion (Rattlestick – Choreo. Consultant), Turf (Dance Teacher Summit, NYC), From the Fire (Edinburgh Fringe Festival - Asst. Choreo.), CLIMAX (The Tank, Triskelion Arts), The Daughters (CAP21 and Joe’s Pub), Bintou (Harlem School of the Arts), Two Long Curves (DanceNOW's Raw Festival). Ani has performed with OBIE award-winning Les Freres Corbusier (Dance Dance Revolution- Asst. Choreo., Hell House), David Dorfman Dance, Reggie Watts (Under the Radar at the Public Theater), and Liz Swados. 2011 Toobie Award for Best Live Performance (co-choreographer); Tisch Drama Award for Community Connection in 2009. Graduate: NYU/Tisch; Silvestre Technique (Salvador da Bahia, Brazil). Ani frequently collaborates with Sam Pinkleton as the Dance Dancing Dance Company teaching absurdist, high-energy repertory dance classes.
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THE DANCE CARTEL
- About THE DANCE CARTEL
The Dance Cartel is after a new brand of dance experience. Taking note of a dance community that too often suffers from anemia and esotericism, the Cartel seeks to create dances that are vibrant, immersive and often participatory. Without sacrificing technical expertise or highbrow aspirations 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.
Find us on Facebook at The Dance Cartel.
DANCERS
ALEXANDRA ALBRECHT is a freelance dance performer and curator based in Brooklyn. She has collaborated with many esteemed artists and choreographers in New York and abroad including Jillian Pena, Hilary Easton, Jenni Hong, Liz Glynn, Jonathan Peck, Andy Byers, Eunhee Lee, Melinda Ring and Ani Niemann. She was a dancer for the 2007 Bessie Schonberg Choreographic Residency at The Yard. She has been curating at The Tank, a non-profit, multi-disciplinary performance venue in midtown Manhattan, since the fall of 2009. She holds a BFA in dance (Tisch School of the Arts) and a BA in Journalism (College of Art and Science) from New York University. She made this last year.
AZIZA BARNES is an LA-born brown-girl-artist, growing in NY. She is in her second year at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, studying Africana and how to write relevant plays. A dancer at the core, Aziza is also poet of note, ranked 1st in the nation as a member of NYU's Slam Team. She's a lady of bebop jazz and James Blake, a salsera and kung fu junkie.
EMILY BASS hails from Columbus Ohio where she began her practice in dance at the ripe age of four. She continued her training and education at The Ohio State University where she studied under the esteemed direction of Bebe Miller, Susan Hadley, Karen Bell, and Susan VanPelt Petry, among many other admired educators. While in Ohio she also had the pleasure of working with Kristina Isabelle, director of Kristina Isabelle Dance Company. Emily graduated Cum Laude with a distinction in dance in 2007 and soon after moved to San Francisco Ca. There, she taught at the revered Roco Dance and Fitness while choreographing and performing throughout the Bay Area. Her work has been produced in the Salon of LEVYdance, and she also had the pleasure of performing with Annie Rosenthal Parr, Jessie Feller, and Stacey Printz while in San Francisco.
In 2010, Emily and her husband moved to New York City where she is now the Marketing and Events Coordinator for Broadway Dance Center. She is fruitfully continuing her career in dance with The Dance Cartel and aempDance, and choreographing for a number of performances throughout the city.
nicHi douglas is an actor, writer and teacher of children's theatre, political comedy and creative arts, respectively, individually, and collectively. she's also a dancer, which would explain her involvement in the DANCE CARTEL. her name is pronounced "Nicky". BFA, NYU '09. MFA, New School '13. www.politicalsubversities.com
GREG MANLEY is a core company member of the Mettawee River Theatre Co. and inventor of the internationally growing new sport Circle Rules Football. Past NYC credits include: The Talking Band's Imminence, Theatre Lila's Firecracker, Abigail Browdie's It's Hell in Here, and the Mansion's A Special Christmas.
JOSHUA PALMER, born and raised in central Maine, began dancing at a local studio in his hometown. Leaving his home state, he attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he graduated in 2007 with a BFA in dance. During college, Josh also studied at the Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance and the Bates Dance Festival. Since graduating, he has had the privilege of performing for Hilary Easton & Co., James Martin, T. Lang, Alethea Adsitt. Josh currently lives in Brooklyn and dances for Doug Elkins & Friends, Gibney Dance, Douglas Dunn, Erica Essner Performance Co-op, and Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance.
RYAN ROSS lives in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of Hollins University as well as a student turned employee of the American Dance Festival. She has performed and collaborated with a number of artists in the NYC area including, Eunhee Lee, Shani Collins of Eternal Works Inc., Jennifer Nugent and Jen Rosenblit and the Bottomheaveies. Along with Lea Fulton, Ryan is a co-creator of MOVE.STORE, a physical, moveable dance theater-ish, always in flux, group of collaborative artists and performers. Ryan is thrilled to be a part of the Dance Cartel!
COLLABORATORS
SAM PINKLETON (co-direction, production design) makes plays and dances and doesn't always have the same title. Recently: Shaina Taub's The Daughters (director - CAP21, Joe's Pub, NYU), David Auburn's The New York Idea (ass't dir. - Atlantic Theater Co./Lucille Lortel Theatre - dir. Mark Brokaw). Sam is a company member of Witness Relocation and with the company has created Hagaddah (LaMaMa ETC), ...Small Incision (Bushwick Starr), and The Blue Bird (CSV). Also work with Les Freres Corbusier, Goodspeed Musicals, Westport Country Playhouse, Theater Mitu, Ars Nova, and The Public Theater's Music Theater Initiative. Numerous readings, concerts, splashy musicals in converted barns, etc. With Ani Niemann: Sketches of Edith Schiele, among others. Occasional faculty: NYU/Playwrights Horizons Theatre School. Graduate: NYU/Tisch. Upcoming: World Premiere of Charles Busch's Olive and the Bitter Herbs (Primary Stages/59E59 - AD). www.SamPinkleton.com
JOHN ALBANO (sound design) is an actor, writer, director, musician and sound designer. While studying theatre NYU, he mounted several of his own plays including Nylon (Experimental Theatre Wing) and Solitude (Eleven Benevolent Elephants). His directing credits include Joe Penhall's BLUE/ORANGE and Lanford Wilson's Home Free! (both at NYU). John works frequently as a sound designer/composer on projects for Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project, including their recent ten year anniversary tour of The Laramie Project. He is the co-creator of the web series It's A Nice Building.
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Posts
- May 14, 12Gucci Gucci by The Dance Cartel at Fresh Ground Pepper, January 2012 Get ready for more at the Ace Hotel this summer: www.kickstarter.com www.facebook.comFrom: aniniemannViews: 370 ratings
Time: 03:16 More in Entertainment - May 09, 12From: aniniemannViews: 80 ratings
Time: 09:55 More in Entertainment - May 04, 12Duet choreographed by Ani Taj Niemann Performed by Ani Taj Niemann and Kendra Ross at the Silvestre Technique Intensive 2012 Summer Showing - Espaco Xisto, Salvador da Bahia, BrazilFrom: aniniemannViews: 2382 ratings
Time: 03:42 More in Entertainment - Aug 20, 11Turf - performed at Dance Teacher Summit 2011 Choreographed by Ani Taj Niemann Performed by Jake DuPree and Ani Taj Niemann Music by the tUnE-yArDs, John Albano, & Crowded HouseFrom: aniniemannViews: 2720 ratings
Time: 08:51 More in Entertainment - May 07, 12Two Long Curves Choreographed by Ani Taj Niemann Performed by Christina Connerton and Ani Taj Niemann November 2009From: aniniemannViews: 1171 ratings
Time: 05:10 More in Entertainment - May 10, 12Choreography reel for Ani Taj Niemann, 2011.From: aniniemannViews: 2042 ratings
Time: 02:03 More in Entertainment - Apr 09, 12Excerpts from CLIMAX, choreographed by Ani Taj Niemann Co-directed by Sam Pinkleton Dancers: Emily Bass, Jake DuPree, Gregory Manley, Ani Taj Niemann, Josh Rowe, Kara ZacconiFrom: aniniemannViews: 1360 ratings
Time: 11:11 More in Entertainment - May 08, 12Excerpt from CLIMAX, choreographed by Ani Taj Niemann Co-directed by Sam Pinkleton Dancers: Jake DuPree, Ani Taj NiemannFrom: aniniemannViews: 750 ratings
Time: 03:20 More in Entertainment - Jan 29, 12Excerpt from CLIMAX, choreographed by Ani Taj Niemann Co-directed by Sam Pinkleton Dancers: Emily Bass, Jake DuPree, Gregory Manley, Josh Rowe, Kara Zacconi April 2011 at The TankFrom: aniniemannViews: 1341 ratings
Time: 02:39 More in Entertainment
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Company Shots - LiveMusicVideo for Wanderlust
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Teaching: The Dance Dancing Dance Company, Notes in Motion
- Ani Taj Niemann and Sam Pinkleton present the Dance Dancing Dance Company Company Class, an extreme dance class that fuses elements of technical dance, endurance practices and theatrical tomfoolery. Emphasizing the importance of Dancing How You Want To Dance To Music You Want To Dance To, the class will be comprised of a series of high-energy exercises and choreographed sequences, building towards a repertory of adaptable, populist, and "fun" dances over the course of the summer. Drawing upon gangster rap, Brazilian parade dances, hookers, recreational dancing, and The American Musical Theatre, the class places equal value on the athletic and the ridiculous. Sweating, momentary panic, and full-body gyration are guaranteed.
There is a suggested donation of $10. It is truly suggested. If paying is a deal-breaker for attending the class, come anyway and buy us a beer in five years when you're famous.
Classes start up again in spring 2012! For more information, contact dancedancingdancecompany@gmail.com
Ani also teaches for Notes in Motion, the educational project of Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre - http://amandaselwyn.notesinmotion.org/
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Upcoming
- Stay tuned for updates about performances beginning in June, 2012.
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Contact
- For more information, contact ani.niemann@gmail.com
For inquiries relating to DDDC and open classes, contact dancedancingdancecompany@gmail.com
