This 18-month, international networking project aims to bring together dance educators, researchers, industry stakeholders, and artists from UK, Nordic countries and US, to raise the profile and status of dance education and to exchange ideas on the topic of Critical Dance Pedagogy. Through discourse (four hybrid seminar-workshops) and in practice (Artist Lab), the Critical Dance Pedagogy network seeks to examine taken-for-granted assumptions, dominant stereotypes, educational and studio structures that (re)produce hierarchies of positions and capitals, barriers and exclusions, and social inequalities, Together participants in the network will examine widening access and participation, student-artist-centred learning and democratic practices in dance education, for greater diversity and inclusion. The network will particularly focus on pedagogy within secondary, further and higher education, and will examine complexities and enablers of democratic working. The significant, complex, embodied issues will be at the core of the discussions, debate, artist development at the Artist Lab, and in the academic, industry-facing and public-facing outputs. Through a series of four, hybrid seminar-workshops, the network will establish opportunities for new scholarly discourse and UK and international connections on the topic of Critical Dance Pedagogy. Key themes will be explored from different disciplinary lenses and methodologies (e.g. sociology, gender, queer, race theory, philosophy, learning theories) and international/cultural perspectives. Each of the seminar-workshops will host 50 participants and will take place across the UK and hybrid to enable global and wide UK access. The seminar-workshops are as follows: 1.Intertextualities and Identities to take place at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU) Speakers:Dr Nyama McCarthy-Brown, (Ohio State University, US), Dr Funmi Adewole (De Montford University, UK), Ash Mukherjee (UK). 2.Equality, Diversity and Inclusion to take place at University of Coventry (UoC) Speakers:Dr Ali Duffy (Texas Tech University, US).Sophie Rebecca, (UK), Dr Kathryn Stamp (Co-I, UoC). 3.Pedagogy(ies) and Practices to take place at University of Edinburgh (UoE) Speakers: Professor Eeva Antilla, (University of Arts, Finland), Stuart Waters (UK), Dr Wendy Timmons (UoE). 4.Leadership and futures to take place at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) Speakers: Professor Rosemary Martin (Nord University, Norway), Dr Aoife McCarthy (QMB), Professor Angela Pickard (PI, CCCU). The network will also connect with leading dance industry organisations at the forefront of sector and policy research related to dance education: One Dance UK, People Dancing, Dance HE, South East Dance, Parable Dance, Parents and Carers in Performing Arts (PiPA), Advancing Women's Aspirations in Dance (AWA), Dance Mama, to ensure the benefits of the network and research are beyond academia, and dance sector voices are fully integrated. The network will also explore student-artist-centred learning, pedagogy and practice in an Artist Lab facilitated by Stuart Waters (a teaching artist with multifaceted intertextualities). The range of outputs and dissemination have potential to reach and benefit widely across public, academic, educator, and industry audiences in the UK and internationally. There will be one public-facing: a film for public engagement and response of learnings/practices as student-responsive pedagogy from the Artist Lab, two academic: special issue of a journal and book proposal, and two industry-facing: summary report and infographic, that will support future scholarly research, professional dance education/training, artistic/performance practices, and policy development. The network has potential to impact thinking, policy and practice within dance education contexts to facilitate a diverse, creative student and artistic workforce.

This 24-month, international networking project aims to bring together dance researchers, artists and industry stakeholders to exchange ideas on the topic of parenthood in dance practice. Through a series of three seminar workshops (1 x Queen's University Belfast (QUB), 1 x Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU), 1 x Texas Tech University (TTU)), the network will establish new scholarly discourse across existing disciplinary boundaries in approaches to the topic of parenthood and dance through connecting researchers working through different disciplinary lenses and methodologies (e.g., performance-based; sociological; physiological/psychological). In addition to fostering interdisciplinary interactions within academia, the network will also connect researchers with leading dance industry organisations at the forefront of sectoral and policy research related to parenthood in dance. Collaboration with dance industry project partners Dance Mama (UK), PiPA (UK), and Balancing Act (Canada) will connect academic researchers with a wide range of public stakeholders and beneficiaries, creating pathways for communication of research findings and engagement with artists, and fostering network growth and policy co-development. Network participants include a core network team and supporting advisory group comprising 14 international researchers and industry partner representatives: Dr Aoife McGrath (PI, QUB), Dr Ali Duffy (Co-I, Texas Tech), Professor Angela Pickard (CCCU), Dr Madeline Harvey (Colorado State), Dr Shamell Bell (Harvard), Professor Emily Underwood Lee (University of South Wales), Professor Emma Redding (University of Melbourne), Dr Lena Simic (Edge Hill University), Susie Burpee (Balancing Act, Canada), Anna Ehnhold-Danailov (PiPA, UK), Lucy McCrudden (Dance Mama, UK), Erin Sanchez (OneDance UK), Aisling McCormick (QUB), and Chloe Hillyar (QUB). The core network will meet regularly across the lifetime of the project (online to allow international participation) and will support the delivery of three seminar events (hybrid) for further invited participants (including policy makers, artists, educators, students, and researchers), and participants recruited through an open call across the core team's networks. Network seminars (40 participants at each seminar) will include activities employing a variety of research methodologies to engage with the different disciplinary perspectives represented by core network participants, and to explore possibilities for interdisciplinary collaboration. All seminars will include practice-based workshops, panel discussions, and a concluding roundtable talk that will be made available to the public on the network's webpage. Each seminar will focus on one of three overarching research questions co-developed by the PI and Co-I in consultation with the core network team: - Seminar 1: What creative processes, research methods, and performance practices address and/or support parenthood and dance? (QUB) - Seminar 2: What physiological and psychological experiences are related to parenthood and dance? (CCCU) - Seminar 3: What economic, political, and socio-cultural contexts intersect with parenthood and dance? (Texas Tech) Developed in collaboration with the project industry partners, the dissemination and engagement strategy for the network includes academic, industry, and public-facing outputs. The network will (i) publish a webpage hosted by industry partner, Dance Mama (UK), that will function as a public-facing international platform for the network that will continue beyond the lifetime of the project (ii) engage videographers to document seminar activities and a series of participant video diaries/blogs for public dissemination on the webpage (iii) generate both academic and industry-facing publication outputs that engage with a broad range of stakeholders including academics, industry stakeholders, and the general public.