AMS Music and Dance Study Group

The Music and Dance Study Group (MDSG) of the American Musicological Society (AMS) is a forum for musicologists interested in the study of dance, an art to which music is tied more than any other. Our members explore all periods of history, from the medieval era through the twenty-first century. Members use methodologies ranging from archival studies to critical theory, addressing questions—whether with an aesthetic, formalist, cultural, and/or historical focus—about the meetings of dance and music. Members examine myriad dance practices and locations: ballet to breakdancing, contra dance to contemporary dance, dances performed at court or on a concert stage, on screen or on the street.

The purpose of the MDSG is to bring together music-and-dance scholars with such varied interests and promote a cross-pollination of ideas. Our goals include revealing the shared concerns and mutually beneficial interrelationships between dance studies and music studies; advocating for the study of dance both in music studies and across the humanities; providing a space for fostering discussions during national and regional meetings of the AMS; and encouraging the exchange of ideas, information, and materials beyond the conference circuit.