Ascent on the Shore of Unknowing is Research with an urgent purpose. It is unlikely to make easy reading. I am concerned with the period of time we call "ageing" having recently entered it. My focus is upon my experience. The Research question here is as follows: How can I sustain a positive attitude to the world throughout my unique process of growing old as this includes physical and mental decline and the awareness of the approach to death. This question is posed within the context that I remain deeply involved in dance through my own body and through the bodies of others. So what is sought must be found through, in relation to, in consonance with or under the influence of dance. I am concerned with my personal changing, and that of others, as brought about by the passage of time. Informing everything here is a hypothesis which I have come to believe to be true over the last twenty years. This states that there may exist a category of experience that, among other things, can provide for us to grow up, live and even to age gracefully while looking upon death with equanimity. It does this through rendering to life a sense of metaphysical meaning. Ross McKim was the Principal and Artistic Director of the Rambert School for thirty years. He entered The Royal Ballet School at sixteen and the Royal Danish Ballet at seventeen. He then danced with The National Ballet of Canada and London Contemporary Dance Theatre as a principal before forming his own companies. He has choreographed for contemporary companies (including London Contemporary Dance Theatre), ballet companies (including The National Ballet of Canada), opera (including English National Opera) and theatre companies (including Tyne Wear Theatre Company). He has an MA (Dance Studies - Surrey) and a PhD (Theology - Durham).