​The Music Theatre Dance Association
Welcomes You!

Welcome to the Music Theatre Dance Association. We are so glad you are here! MTDA has many things to offer, including opportunities for publication, presentation, and professional development. All of our offerings are free and open to all MTDA members. Membership in MTDA is free; all you have to do to join is sign up for our listserv below. Here are a few of our offerings:
​
  • The brand new open access journal MusicTheatreDance, which is in its inaugural year Please visit the journal tab to read the current issue and for the CFP and information about submitting your work.
  • MTDA Winter Symposium, our annual free conference. Please visit the MTDA Events tab for information about the conference and how to submit and/or attend.
  • Year-round professional development and presentation opportunities. Please visit the events tab for a list of upcoming events and how to access them. 
  • The yearly ATHE conference. MTDA sponsors a range of panels at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, including our annual Bruce Kirle Memorial Debut Panel. Please visit the ATHE tab for information about this year’s conference.

Who We Are

The Music Theatre Dance Association was founded in 1993 as the MTD Focus Group of ATHE and has grown into an inclusive, international coalition of more than 200 theatre scholars, practitioners, post-secondary educators, and graduate students. The leadership is dedicated to keeping MTDA free and open to all professionals who work at the intersections of music, theatre, and dance. 

A central value of MTDA is to foreground equity and anti-racist practices and to elevate the work of BIPOC and global-majority artists and scholars. We also encourage all members to explore ways to be inclusive of LGBTQIA+, Disabled and Deaf/deaf, and Women artists and scholars, and beyond. By pushing and expanding the boundaries of studies in music theatre and dance, we create greater room for more voices, with new perspectives on new topics of inquiry, as well as new insights on old topics. 

Please visit the bottom of this page to read our mission statement and values statement to get to know MTDA. 
​

How to Join

If you need help getting added to the listserv, please reach out to the MTDA Membership Outreach Coordinator, Annie Potter at [email protected]
If you already have a gmail account, join our listserv on Google groups  here. If you do not, please use the above  link to see the steps to join. 

 MTDA Mission

The Music Theatre Dance Association supports and produces a collaboration of performance practice and scholarship in the field of Music Theatre. The Music Theatre Dance Association encompasses such art forms as: opera, operettas, musicals, dance theatre, and performance art.  It seeks to encourage new research in the field, help curriculum development in new programs, and help the growth of the study of these disciplines in academia.  The Music Theatre Dance Association also provides a place where teaching techniques can be shared, networking strategies reinforced and connections with the professional world and our various institutions can be made and solidified.

​

MTDA Values Statement

The Music Theatre Dance Association is committed to upholding the following values in all of our programming and publications:
  1. Access
    We prioritize open access to all programming, resources, and publications. We believe that everyone should have access to our programming. This includes removing both financial and logistical barriers that inhibit participation, ensuring access for all.
  2. Equity
    We are committed to dismantling systemic and institutional racism, misogyny, and bias of all kinds, seeking to make our field more equitable for all. 
  3. Responsibility
    We strive to re-envision academic structures by actively diversifying the work produced and circulated within our field and by encouraging our members to illuminate the work of previously underrepresented artists.
  4. Interdisciplinarity
    We aim to broaden our field by seeking opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. We seek to break down the gates and cast a wide net when determining what work might be included in our field.
  5. Community
    ​We exist to create a community for scholars and practitioners at all stages of their careers. We aim to connect our members to resources, scholarship, and fellowship across global boundaries. Our leadership is chosen by the membership in order to serve our fellow colleagues. ​