Beijing Dance Academy

Beijing Dance Academy

Beijing Dance Academy is a full-time regular higher education institution primarily dedicated to cultivating high-caliber dance professionals, conducting high-level dance theory research, and creating dance works. The school was formerly known as Beijing Dance School, established in 1954 as the first professional dance school in New China. In 1978, it was officially approved by the State Council and founded as Beijing Dance Academy, under the administration of the Ministry of Culture. In 2000, it was transferred to the government of Beijing Municipality. The academy is authorized to confer bachelor's and master's degrees and is China’s only specialized higher education institution for dance. It is also the largest and most comprehensive dance institution of its kind in the world today, renowned as the “cradle of dancers.”

In recent years, the academy has continuously deepened reforms in dance education and teaching. It currently comprises departments such as Chinese Classical Dance, Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance, Ballet, International Standard Dance, and Musical Theatre, as well as the Creative College (including Directing, Modern Dance, and Art Design departments), the Humanities College (including Dance Studies, Art Communication, and General Education divisions), and the Education College. These, along with the Graduate School, the Department of Ideological and Political Theory, the Continuing Education College, the Dance Grading Institute, the Youth Dance Troupe, and the Affiliated Secondary Dance School, form a dance education system with distinctive Chinese characteristics. The academy has nearly 600 faculty and staff members, and approximately 2,400 full-time students (over 1,300 undergraduates, nearly 200 graduate students, and over 800 affiliated secondary school students). The Continuing Education College enrolls about 5,000 students in both degree and non-degree programs. The Dance Grading Institute trains over 50,000 dance grading instructors annually both in China and abroad, with nearly 500,000 students participating in dance grading examinations.

Over the past 60-plus years since its founding, the academy has faithfully implemented the Party’s educational and cultural policies. Guided by its motto — “Uphold virtue, embrace harmony, integrate art and culture, and cultivate both moral integrity and artistic excellence” — and committed to the goals of “pursuing high-level cultural ideals, ensuring high-quality talent development, and delivering high-standard popular education,” the academy takes it as its mission to lead and advance the reform and development of China’s dance education. It remains dedicated to fostering virtue through education while fully fulfilling its key functions in talent cultivation, scientific research, social service, cultural heritage and innovation, and international exchange and cooperation, striving to build itself into a world-class dance university with Chinese characteristics.

Address: No. 1 Wanshousi Road, Haidian District, Postal Code: 100081