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.