Beijing Dance Academy is a full-time higher education institution, committed to cultivating excellent professional dancers, choreographers, and dance researchers. Founded in 1954, BDA, once known as Beijing Dance School, is the first professional dance school established after the founding of the People’s Republic of China. In 1978, with the approval of the State Council, BDA was officially established with an affiliation to the Ministry of Culture which was then transferred to the Beijing Municipal Government in 2000. As a degree-granting institution, the academy is the only professional higher education institution for dance in China. Praised as “the cradle of dance artists”, it is also the largest dance school in the world providing comprehensive majors and programs.
In recent years, under continuous in-depth restructuring of dance education and teaching, BDA now consists of Department of Chinese Classical Dance, Department of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance, Ballet Department, Department of Ballroom Dance, Department of Musical Theater, School of Creative Studies (including Department of Choreography, Department of Modern Dance, Department of Art Design, and Image & New Media Center), School of Humanities (including Department of Dance Studies, Department of Art Communication and Department of Art Theory), School of Education, Department of Ideological-political Science, School of Continuing Education, the Affiliated Secondary School of BDA and etc., formulating a dance education system with Chinese characteristics. Currently, the campus is home to about 600 in-service faculty and staff, and 2300 full-time students (around 1300 undergraduates, nearly 200 graduate students and over 800 students from the affiliated Secondary School), apart from around 7000 students from the School of Continuing Education (diploma and non-diploma courses). Each year, the School of Dance Grade Education trains over 50,000 teachers of dance grade examination at home and abroad, and nearly 50,000 students take the dance grade examination organized by BDA.
Since its founding 68 years ago, BDA has followed through the Party's policies on education and literature, shouldering the responsibility for the reform and development of Chinese dance education and taking “dance for the people, contribute to the times” as its pursuit. While undertaking to foster virtue through education, BDA strives to build a world-class university of dance with Chinese characteristics to cultivate talents, carry out scientific research and social service, inherit and innovate Chinese culture, and communicate and cooperate with institutions across the globe.
Mode of school running: high-level dance art university with distinctive features
Goal of talent training: to expand the leading edge of dance talent training, focusing on the training of dance performance and choreography professionals, dance education, research, and high-level management personnel.
Service positioning: Based on Beijing, serving China, embracing the world, contributing to the economic and social development of Beijing and China.
Development orientation: high-end dance talent training center, academic dance research center, dance study and creation center, dance cultural heritage and innovation center, digital dance education center, dance art education think tank.
