The Dutch National Ballet Academy - BA Teacher of Classical Ballet
The Dutch National Ballet Academy (NBA) started a course for a Bachelor’s degree in teaching classical ballet in 22-23.
The Bachelor’s (BA) course links up with NBA’s current Associate Degree Performing Dancer of Classical Ballet. It can also be taken after a dancing career as part of lifelong learning. A preliminary course in classical ballet technique is a requirement for all candidates, so the BA Performing Dancer with the endorsement Teacher of Classical Ballet can be obtained within one year.
The course adds an important new opportunity for classically trained dancers and aspirant dance teachers to develop as a teacher of classical ballet, for which there is great demand. Alongside Academy of Theatre and Dance’s existing broad Dance in Education course, this new NBA model will give people wanting to teach classical ballet at a company or academy the chance to obtain this BA Dance endorsement Teacher of Classical Balletwithin a year.
NBA worked hard on developing a new syllabus that not only forms the basis for this teacher training course, but will also be followed within our own school.
Originating from the history of teaching within NBA and the history and knowledge of basic themes from the Vaganova technique, and updated to meet the needs of today’s choreographers and classical ballet companies, the syllabus is distinguished mainly for the fact that it prioritises the joy of dance and combines technique with dancy combinations from an early age.
Content of the course
photo: Andrej Uspenski
During the course, you will learn to understand and apply the syllabus, so that you will be able to teach on the basis of the NBA model. The model also includes a methodology and some general principles. Together with the lecturers, students get to know and understand the different years of the syllabus within the school, and as part of the programme they give trial lessons on the NBA Performing Dancer course and at partner schools.
It goes without saying that an understanding of music, working with a musical accompanist and being able to make musical choices in relation to technique are important elements in the development of a classical ballet teacher. Music is therefore a separate module within the NBA programme.
Detailed attention is also paid to Pedagogy and Didactics in a module that covers two lesson blocks.
We explore what it means to be a ballet teacher nowadays, and how social changes influence the responsibility of classical ballet companies and schools and the way they train young people.
In the last module we look in more depth at the mental health of young students and at newly gained insights from the sports world and findings within ballet, both national and international.
Students end the course with a dissertation on the challenging question: “What sort of classical ballet teacher do I want to be?”
Entry requirements:
- High school diploma (equivalent to the Dutch havo or mbo4 diploma)
- Preliminary Course in Classical Ballet NBA OR a similar course elsewhere (1 year exemption), plus:
- Associate Degree Classical Ballet NBA (2 years) OR a similar course elsewhere OR a BA Classical Ballet course elsewhere (NB: in that case, the institutional tuition fee will be set at € 5,615)
- The aforementioned also applies to students coming from the professional field OR a preliminary course and a minimum of 10 years’ professional dance experience in a company based on classical ballet technique.
Tuition fees:
Statutory tuition fee
The statutory tuition fee is: €2,314 for the 2023/2024 academic year. The reduced statutory fee (for first year students) is €1,157.
You are entitled to the statutory fee if you:
have the nationality of a country within the European Economic Area (all EU countries, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein); AND do not already have a Bachelor's degree at the time of enrolment in a Bachelor's program.
The exceptions, who are also eligible for the statutory tuition fee, are students with:
Ukrainian, Swiss or Surinam nationality
Institutional fees
If you are not entitled to the statutory fee, you have to pay the institutional fee
Bachelors Dance: € 5,615
For more information about tuition fees, see the AHK website
For more information about the program, please contact nba-auditions@ahk.nl