If you dream of becoming a professional dancer like Rudolf Nureyev, Sylvie Guillem, or Anna Pavlova, you need to attend one of the best dance schools in the world.
Dance has been ranked one of the most physically demanding jobs in the world — with only about 10% of graduates becoming professional dancers.
But if you have a real passion for the field, it’s important that you expand your knowledge and skills in all the right ways.
To do this, the best dance schools in the world are good starting points.
Whether you are interested in ballet, tango, or bhangra, these schools will equip you with the skills and techniques needed to succeed in the dance industry.
Ask any professional or aspiring ballet dancer about the best dance schools in the UK and more than a handful will mention The Royal Ballet School of London.
Renowned for its excellent teaching, the school is open to aspiring dancers aged 11 to 19 to receive rigorous training in classical ballet through the Royal Ballet School’s System of Training.
In particular, you will learn the techniques and artistry required to perform the distinctive and sought-after English style of classical ballet initiated by the school’s founder, Dame Ninette de Valois.
For those outside the UK, you can opt for the International Scholars Programme, which selects several gifted students aged 11 to 15 years to partake in the school’s curriculum for a certain time — and with a potential to join the school’s full-time programme too.
Many of the school’s graduates have joined top companies worldwide, including the Royal Ballet in London and the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Established in 1738, the Vaganova Ballet Academy has produced some of the best and most influential ballet dancers in the world, such as Anna Pavlova, Rudolf Nureyev, and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Known as one of the best dance schools in Russia, applicants begin their studies here as young as 10 years old.
The academy also offers an annual International Trainee Programme of ballet education for those aged 16 to 20. It’s a 10-month programme that costs around US$17,500, covering your curriculum, accommodation, meals, medical care, excursions, an intensive course in Russian language, and more.
However, enrolling and graduating from the Vaganova Academy is no easy task.
Every year, only the dancers deemed the absolute best in their class will succeed. Those who do land positions at the Mariinsky Ballet Company, while others join the likes of The Royal Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet and the American Ballet Theatre.
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The Juilliard School is undoubtedly one of the best dance schools in the US.
It offers a four-year Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance, which fuses technical training and choreography techniques. The programme exposes students to the various genres and aspects of dance, including ballet, hip-hop, ethics, acting, stagecraft, kinesiology and many more.
On top of that, students have the option of choosing from a list of electives such as choreography, yoga and mindfulness.
Getting accepted is tough as the programme accepts only around 18 to 26 students a year. You must have a high school diploma, a minimum of three years of training in ballet, modern or contemporary dance and be training for at least 10 hours per week to be eligible for the programme.
The Tisch School of Arts‘s Bachelor of Fine Arts is an intensive three-year plus two-summer curriculum that starts with learning how to dance in “the most efficient and healthy way.”
In the second year, courses in dance history, acting, improvisation, music literature, and advanced dance composition follow.
In the third year, students will work on integrating the previous years of training into staged performance and choreography, gaining professional dance experience as ensemble members of Tisch’s Second Avenue Dance Company.
Students can also opt for an immersive and exciting three-week contemporary, improvisation, and performance intensive training during the summer in Berlin.
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The Korea National University of the Arts (K-Arts) is the first school in South Korea to classify the fields of theory, choreography and performance of dance education into different majors.
Here, the Department of Dance Performance identifies the major courses into Korean dance, ballet, contemporary dance and dance music, which are then divided into Intermediate and Advanced Technique courses to increase the level of intensity.
Undergraduate programmes here generally last four years.
International applicants can also apply for the Art Major Asian plus Scholarship (AMA+), a global initiative undertaken by K-Arts with the goal of educating students for spreading Asian arts to the world as a global educational leader by promoting artistic elites development with the full scholarship grants.
You can even learn a thing or two about cultural ethnic dances when you go to some of the world’s best dance schools. Source: AFP
One of the best dance schools in China, the Beijing Dance Academy is the first professional dance school established after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Praised as “the cradle of dance artists,” the academy consists of departments in Chinese Classical Dance, Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance, Ballet, Ballroom Dance, Musical Theatre, the School of Creative Studies (which includes the departments of Choreography, Modern Dance, Art Design, and Image & New Media Centre), the School of Humanities (with the departments of Dance Studies, Art Communicationm, and Art Theory), and more.
Undergraduate degrees here last four years and cost 40,000 Chinese yuan (US$5,506) per year, totalling around US$22,025 for the entire programme.
Located in Sitges, Spain, the Institute of the Arts Barcelona (IAB) emphasises the education of performing arts training, offering BA (Hons) Contemporary Dance and BA (Hons) Commercial Dance, each lasting three years.
Here, training focuses on individuality, which means letting you find your own voice as an artist and giving you all the skills necessary to succeed. That’s done through learning by doing and putting your skills into practice right away in front of an audience so you start gaining performance experience as soon as possible.
A true highlight of your time at IAB, however, is the international community of over 50 nationalities and the school’s commitment to fostering a multicultural environment. IAB encourages and celebrates opportunities for cultural appreciation and cultural exchange, proven through their curriculum’s range of references, which allows everyone to feel included.
Those from the European Union, the European Economic Area, and the UK pay a yearly tuition fee of 11,900 euros (US$12,846), while those outside of those areas pay 16,900 euros (US$18,244).
The only higher education school exclusively dedicated to contemporary dance in France, the Centre national de danse contemporaine (Cndc) offers future dancers and choreographers a three-year full-time training programme.
The programme is open to those 18 and above who hold the French baccalauréat or equivalent and can prove a dance background of at least three years. Beyond that, you’ll need a mastery of French or English upon your enrollment, and you’ll need to work towards mastering the other language during your first year of study.
Here, you’ll join a tight-knit cohort of brilliant talent from around the world. For example, the class of 2021-2024 is formed by 18 students of six different nationalities, while the class of 2024-2027 is formed by 20 students of 10 different nationalities.
The fees are around 462 euros (US$498) per year.
Disclaimer: This article was last updated on April 2, 2025.
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