Being a dance scholar takes daily invention. I keep inventing this profession out of a specific use of the « theory and practice » issues. First, it takes to consider as equally legitimate, practical and conceptual knowledge. In other words, it requires to reject the traditional hierarchies between dominant and minor knowledge. Secondly, it requires questioning the researcher’s motivations (which need to be both personal and collective). And the destination of research, which is political. In my practice, research always has a precise goal of social transformation. Therefore I offer the notion of « alter-situated research » : a research that requires to create itself both inside and outside of university, both with scholars and non-scholars, and oriented towards multiple audiences. Last, this alter-situated research invites to vigilance with regards to the ever-increasing pressure of institution normativity, and offers dance studies as alternative to this normativity.