M.A.U.N structures, professionalizes and amplifies urban dance.
Based in Bordeaux, the non-profit supports a new generation of dancers through training, international mobility, events and digital tools.
Hip-hop culture is one of the most practiced art forms among young people in France. Yet its career paths remain poorly structured: few training schemes, little access to international experience, hardly any tools to track progress and validate trajectories.
M.A.U.N exists to build that infrastructure.
Structure urban dance in France: training, international mobility, events, digital tools.
M.A.U.N supports dancers across every dimension of their journey: learning, transmitting, travelling, performing, documenting, progressing and turning professional.
In institutional arts, a career path can be tracked, funded, documented. In urban cultures, those mechanisms barely exist. M.A.U.N is building them.
SOYSPACE is the artistic ecosystem run by M.A.U.N. It brings together complementary programs that answer concrete needs from the field.
M.A.U.N's international artistic mobility program. Designed as an Erasmus for urban cultures, it lets dancers spend several weeks abroad to train, transmit, meet other scenes and become ambassadors of French hip-hop culture. Three phases: preparation in France, immersion abroad, and a return to share with the community.
M.A.U.N produces events, battles, workshops and coaching sessions to weave connections, surface new talent and energize the local urban scene. In Bordeaux, the association works alongside partners like Global Movement and Level Up.
Our pillar for evaluation and artistic guidance. It helps dancers better understand their progression through battle analyses, personalized feedback and skill-building tools.
Digital runs through every M.A.U.N project. Soyuz, founder and developer, builds in-house the tools the association needs: websites, internal chatbots, AI agents, automations for scoring and training (at the heart of Compass). Each field need becomes a tool, each tool serves the dancers directly.
Explore was born from a simple observation: hip-hop dancers rarely have access to international mobility programs designed for their codes, needs and realities.
Since 2024, M.A.U.N has been building a structured program to open those doors.
The first Explore edition took place in China with four professional dancers: Soyuz, Isma, Marie and Sosax.
Over three weeks, the team travelled across five cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, Xi'an and Hangzhou — to teach classes, take part in workshops, judge battles and meet the local scene.
This pilot proved that dance could become a real bridge between cultures, provided it is supported by a strong framework and partners on the ground.
In 2025, Explore opened to a new generation: fifteen amateur dancers, aged 18 to 30, selected for their commitment, curiosity and ability to represent.
From September 25 to October 14, 2025, participants travelled across China for twenty days — Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan and back to Beijing.
The route mixed workshops, battles, classes, cyphers, showcases, encounters with local studios and cultural immersion.
This edition confirmed a strong intuition: the value of a mobility program does not depend solely on participants' competition record, but on their commitment and ability to build connections.
| Indicator | Explore 2024 | Explore 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Participants | 4 professional dancers | 15 amateur dancers |
| Duration | 3 weeks | 20 days |
| Cities | 5 | 6 |
| Competitions / battles | 4 competitions | 8+ battles covered |
| Wins | 2 | 5 |
| Battle judges | 2 | 2 |
In 2025, the program also documented eight major pedagogies, consolidated a network of Chinese partners and identified the need for external funding to make mobility accessible to amateur dancers.
M.A.U.N wants to bring forth a sustainable model for urban cultures — one that connects the field, training, international experience, documentation and technology.
The goal is not a one-off trip nor an isolated event. The goal is to build a trajectory.
2024 proved the format worked. 2025 showed it could open to amateurs. 2026 must consolidate the model, secure funding and reinforce impact documentation.
In the long term, Explore is meant to open up to other territories, other cultures and other audiences.
Step by step, M.A.U.N is building lasting infrastructure for urban cultures. Here are the key milestones.
The House of Urban and Digital Arts is founded in Bordeaux by Soyuz, an international popping dancer. Status: French association under the 1901 law.
Goal: structure, professionalize and amplify urban dance — particularly hip-hop — in France and internationally.
First edition of Explore with four professional dancers: Soyuz, Isma, Marie and Sosax.
Three weeks, five cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, Xi'an, Hangzhou): 11 private classes, 3 workshops, 4 competitions, 2 wins in Xi'an.
The format is validated. Dance becomes a real bridge between cultures.
Scaling up: 15 amateur dancers (18-30), selected on commitment and curiosity, mainly from Bordeaux and Marseille.
Twenty days, six cities (Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Wuhan, return to Beijing), five high-speed train rides.
8+ international battles, 5 wins (4 Sosax, 1 Isma), high-attendance workshops in Beijing and Wuhan.
Meetings with leading studios: Gsteps (Beijing), 227 Studio (Wuhan), Mercury 20 Crew (Shanghai). Chinese network consolidated.
Secure external funding of €15,000-20,000 to make Explore accessible to amateurs.
Strengthen impact documentation, structure the production of in-house digital tools (Compass, AI automations, websites) and prepare expansion into new territories.
M.A.U.N was founded in Bordeaux in 2024.
The association is run by a multidisciplinary team of about fifteen volunteers: dancers, developers, designers, communications people, managers and field actors.
Local roots are essential. From Bordeaux's scene, schools, associations and dancers, M.A.U.N builds bridges to the international stage.
Supporting M.A.U.N means contributing to the structuring of a discipline practiced by thousands of young people, but still poorly supported.
Partners can act on several levels:
To become a partner, support Explore, propose a collaboration or join the association, the single point of contact is:
M.A.U.N is a non-profit. No profit is distributed. Resources come from membership fees, grants and contributions from public or private partners.