MUSIDANSE (Aesthetics, musicology, dance and music creation, E.A. 1572 [host team 1572]) is a research unit which includes researchers and faculty members from the Department of Music and Dance at University of Paris 8 mainly. The research programmes and activities of the unit aim largely at musical and choreographic creation, with a strong emphasis on diversifying methods and standpoints. The wide range of objects and the variety of approaches reflects the complexity of the present period and the place of music and dance in today’s world.

The artistic productions and practices the researchers work upon (art pieces, actions, events, interactive performance installations, in situ or « transitional » works …) call for sensitive and theoretical approaches. Enhanced by intersecting methods and an open concept of musicology and dance studies, the analysis of the art projects, and of their underlying practices too, aims at a deep understanding of the creative processes and artistic gestures, such as they develop both in themselves and through their interaction with the social, ecological, economic or political issues of our time.

In terms of production, several researchers, being notably artists, develop research-creation projects. By going deeper into the relationships between aesthetic reflection and the acquisition of either technical or technological skills and social-cultural contents, MUSIDANSE fosters the various links that will be established between analytical reflection and artistic experimenting. Accordingly, the research and creation methods used within the unit aim at developing a concept and a practice of music, of the sound, of dance, of the gesture, and at enabling them to adapt to historical objects as well as to productions in the ultimate contemporary art style.

MUSIDANSE is a hosting team for PhD students applying at EDESTA doctoral school. Strongly involved in maintaining close relations with its immediate surroundings (EUR ArTeC, CRR of Aubervilliers, ComUE at Paris Lumières…), it is also part of several national and international networks.

Since 2020, MUSIDANSE has been a combination of four in-house teams : Creation and interaction (C.et.I) ; Composition, interpretation, performance, improvisation (CISI) ; Research centre in informatics and musical creation (CICM) ; Dance, gesture and corporeity.