Dr Sarahleigh Castelyn Why I am not a fan of the Lion King: Ethically-informed Approaches to the Teaching and Learning of South African Dance Forms in Higher Education in the United Kingdom. Introduction I teach on a university programme in London that requires students to explore popular and social dance practices. Whenever I introduce myself to students studying on a module that includes South African dance styles as its focus, I start the session by projecting a Peters world map, particularly as there remains heated debate about this map and its attempt to portray ‘countries and thereof in more correct size perspective’ (Johnson, 2007, p. 60). I point out the routes I have taken that have led me to standing at that moment in front of them as a lecturer. I show how we are here – London – and I am from there – Pietermaritzburg, a small town in South Africa – and I left there to come here – London – and I danced there – Durban, a major port in South Africa – and how now I dance here – London – and how I will be teaching about dance from there – South Africa, a country at the bottom-end of Africa – and they will be learning it here – in Great Britain, an island off the western coast of Europe. The university’s dance studios are based in the East End of London that historically has – and is still – a location for immigrant communities. All of this makes the site of the dance studios an evocative location to study popular and social dance and rel ated concerns such as ‘cultural appropriation’ (Glasser, 1993, p. 183) especially African and African Diasporic dance practices, and their relationship to and with dominant cultures from predominantly North American and Western Europe. Moreover, academic study of dance has over-privileged theatre/art dance, but particularly theatre/art dance from North America and Western Europe: ‘[i]n terms of dance practice, it is the serious endeavour of art dance that is awarded high levels of cultural values and, as several dance scholars reflect, the discipline of dance studies has perpetuated the hegemony of the canon’ (Dodds, 2011, p. 19). Dodds’ book is on popular dance and aims to ‘show how and why popular dance exists within a system of values’ (Dodds, 2011, p. 4) and her exploration of the value systems could be adopted and extended to consider all dance forms that have been excluded from the canon, such as the ‘wide variety of dance genres and styles’ (Friedman, 2009, p. 139) from South Africa. ‘South Africa’s dancescape has a rich cultural diversity, spanning traditional forms in African ritual dances as well as Western or European dance forms such as ballroom and ballet’ (Craighead, 2006, pp. 22-23). I am committed to opening up the academic study of dance to include all forms and practices and this includes my desire to introduce students in the United Kingdom to a diversity of dances from South Africa, as to understand South African culture, students need to study South African dances from not only the stages, but also dance from the screens, and the streets of South Africa. Dance forms in South Africa are as diverse as