Developing meaningful partnerships through Moving Stories

Over the last 24 years, Akram Khan Company (AKC) has become one of the most innovative dance companies in the world. The programmes range from kathak and modern solos to ensemble productions and our wide-ranging creative learning programmes. AKC has a major international presence and enjoys busy tours that reach out to many cultures and peoples across the globe. Akram has been the recipient of numerous international dance awards. A milestone in the company’s journey was the creation of a section of the London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony in 2012.

A significant shift in our Creative Learning and Legacy programme began in 2022 with an invitation from Lansbury Lawrence Primary School in Tower Hamlets, asking if we would like to develop a longer-term partnership with five schools in the borough as part of the TDF programme. This incredible two-year initiative has allowed us to create genuine collaboration between our freelance artists and teachers; to research, plan and deliver movement-based lessons with clear connections to the primary school curriculum. Our dance artists and the teachers have planned and facilitated curriculum-themed lessons through movement on a weekly basis on every topic imaginable – from the Olympics to Superheroes, the Romans to Seasonal Change, electricity to the circulatory system. We have explored the edges of our comfort zone, learned together, and of course, the children have also greatly benefited from this collaboration.

As a company, we have always offered one-off workshops and short projects, however opportunities to create long-term partnerships with schools and to truly embed creative learning are rare. The scope of this project has allowed us to create a new, part-time role in the company structure to lead this project, one that we hope to maintain. We have a new Tower Hamlets school on board this year and have already delivered parts of the Moving Stories offer in other London boroughs. We have designed a free learning resource pack that can be downloaded from our website. 

In the words of Akram:

“As a child, I discovered how movement allowed me to communicate with others and helped me make sense of the world around me. Dance is, and always has been a primal way to explore, communicate and experience dreams and possibilities. Therefore, it is vital that we have these experiences early on. I feel movement is an integral part of the way we learn in school because if we don’t feel at home in our own bodies, we will never feel at home in the world we inhabit.

“As we came to the end of this phase of Moving Stories, I was proud to take my mother, a retired teacher, into Lansbury Lawrence Primary and for her to see the teachers and children in action and to talk to parents at the school. I wanted her to know that her commitment to my physical literacy, childhood interests in dance and learning through moving, has extended to hundreds of children, perhaps the next generation of creatives. We must recognise that parental endorsement of creativity is ever more pertinent in a time when funding to the arts and arts-based learning in schools is in decline. And most importantly, that creativity in schools allows access and inclusion for all children, regardless of background.”

For more information, download the free Moving Stories learning resource pack and watch our celebration trailer.