Media library and collections

General catalogue

This collection contains all of the written and audiovisual documents available for consultation at the mediatheque of the Centre National de la Danse, in parallel with the archive collections and private collections described elsewhere. This international, up to date selection of documents covers the history of dance, different styles, the context and teaching of dance, as well as related disciplines (other arts, medicine of the arts, physical practices, cultural policy, etc.).

Archive inventories

The mediatheque of the Centre National de la Danse has a hundred archive collections documenting the work of choreographers, dancers, teachers, artists, writers and other theoreticians, as well as theatres and performance venues and specialised institutions. The inventories of these collections, which are gradually being published on this portal, will provide a detailed description, as well as numerous digital documents (manuscripts, printed documents, photographs, videos).

Digital mediatheque

More than 180 000 digital documents can be consulted online, including photographs, videos and sound documents.

Reading room

The vast reading room of the media library, conducive to work, is freely accessible. New multimedia consultation areas have been created, while the computer stations permit various activities, including consulting the archive catalogue and archive inventories, viewing the video collection or listening to sound recordings and consulting electronic resources online via the mediatheque portal. Finally, a specific space is set aside for consulting archive and historic documents.

Items to be consulted and borrowed

The range of documents freely accessible in the reading room has been modified according to precise selection criteria. Users can now find various resources in French and English published over the past 30 years. To discover all of the documents available on a given subject or artist, readers and researchers can search the catalogue and submit a request to consult documents that are kept in storage. The portion of the collection that is available to be borrowed has been considerably increased and extended to all the thematic sections.

Freely available collections

The principal collection, freely available in the reading room, offers readers a range of documents that is international in scope and kept up to date, spanning the history, styles, contexts and teaching of dance, as well as a number of related disciplines (the other arts, medicine, bodily practices, cultural politics, etc.): 30,000 books, 1,500 periodicals, 400 of which are current, 5,000 videos that can be consulted immediately on the premises, more than 800 hours of video captures of the CN D’s activities, and 1,000 CDs and musical scores.

The reading room (50 seats, including 12 with an internet connection and 20 stations for watching videos) has been named the ‘Guilberte Cournand room’, after the dance critic, bookseller and gallerist who donated a large collection of books and archives to the CN D. The documents that are freely available are grouped together and sorted into major themes, embracing all media.

The CN D and the Maison de la Danse in Lyon have also created twin digital video libraries from their own collections, making available, at each site, the two institutions’ historical resources. 

More than 2 800 videos have been available in full on dedicated stations in the mediatheque at the CN D in Pantin.

The digital video library contains recordings of most of the performances given at the CN D since 2011, recordings of certain recent courses and classes for professionals and the main resources from the archive collections of the CN D mediatheque.

Borrowing documents

A free loan service is available for mediatheque users. It enables card holders to borrow up to six documents, including up to three video or audio documents, for a maximum of four weeks. To sign up, some form of ID is required, as well as proof of address less than three months old (electricity bill, landline phone bill, rent) and a cheque for €70.