This article considers the interface between artistic and spiritual inquiry through an examination of Vertical Road (2010), an ensemble performance work by the British contemporary choreographer Akram Khan. Khan is well known for his cross-cultural explorations, critical appreciation of which has tended to focus on the hybrid nature of his movement vocabulary and aesthetic. This article considers the intercultural nature of his work in terms of the ideas, beliefs and values that it embodies. In particular it examines Vertical Road in relation to some key tenets of contemporary progressive spirituality. It suggests that Vertical Road provides a poetic and insightful reflection on our contemporary spiritual condition. Critical appreciation of Khan's work has tended to focus on its cross-cultural significance

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Amba is a relatively minor character in the Sanskit epic the Mahābhārata. Her story is of a woman, spurned by men, who seeks justice and retribution by engaging in extreme spiritual practices that lead to the intervention of the Hindu deities and her re-birth as a male warrior capable of exacting revenge. In 2016 Amba’s story was re-imagined in poetry by Karthika Nair and in a dance performance by Akram Khan. The title of both works, Until the Lions, is taken from an Igbo proverb, ‘until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter’ and encapsulates both artists’ interest in alternative, especially female, perspectives. This article demonstrates how Khan’s Until the Lions embodies tensions and ambiguities at the heart of which is a profound concern with spirituality and gender. In particular it argues that Until the Lions explores the impact of śakti (divine feminine energy) on female/male relationships and on the environment.

The recent expansion in children’s and young people’s participation in dance in the UK has led to increased involvement of dance artists in education. Despite a growing body of evidence that demonstrates the impact that dance can have on young people’s physical, psychological, and social wellbeing, the pedagogy that delivers it is relatively underresearched. This chapter is especially concerned with the pedagogies of dance artists and practitioners in the informal education and youth sectors. It traces pedagogical developments that have integrated aspects of professional, educational, and community dance practices. It suggests aspects of artist-led pedagogy that appear key to enhancing subjective wellbeing.

Community dance, in the sense of participatory, creative dance facilitated by professional practitioners, emerged during the 1970s and 1980s in the UK. It was one of several specialized disciplines prefigured by a community arts movement that developed in the late 1960s. It has become a key feature of the British dance ecology with values and practices that have gained international recognition. The sector has been led by the Foundation for Community Dance continuously for twenty seven years. Now an organization with a membership in excess of 4,500 dance professionals worldwide, the Foundation 'works with, and on behalf of artists, organizations and teachers involved in leading, delivering or supporting community and participatory dance' (Foundation for Community Dance 2012). The Foundation began in