Beijing Dance Academy is a full-time regular higher education institution with the main tasks of cultivating high-quality dance talents, conducting high-level dance theory research, and creating works. The college, formerly known as Beijing Dance School, was founded in 1954 and was the first professional dance school in New China. In 1978, Beijing Dance Academy was officially established with the approval of the State Council, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture. In 2000, it was transferred to the Beijing Municipal People’s Government. The college has the authority to award bachelor’s and master’s degrees and is the only specialized higher education institution for dance education in China. It is also the largest and most comprehensive dance institution in the world today, known as the “cradle of dancers”.
In recent years, the college has continuously deepened the reform of dance education and teaching. It now has teaching institutions such as the Department of Chinese Classical Dance, the Department of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance, the Department of Ballet, the Department of International Standard Dance, the Department of Musical Theatre, the School of Creativity (including the Department of Directing, the Department of Modern Dance, the Department of Art Design, and the Center for New Media), the School of Humanities (including the Department of Dance Studies, the Department of Art Communication, and the Department of Art Theory), the School of Education, the Department of Ideological and Political Theory Teaching and Research, the School of Continuing Education, and the Affiliated Secondary School of Dance, jointly forming a dance education system with Chinese characteristics. The college currently has nearly 600 faculty and staff members, including nearly 2300 full-time students (over 1300 undergraduate students, nearly 200 graduate students, and over 800 students from affiliated high schools). The Continuing Education College has about 7000 students in both academic and non academic education. The Dance Grading Institute trains over 50000 dance grading teachers at home and abroad every year, and nearly 500000 students participate in dance grading exams.
Since its establishment 68 years ago, the college has conscientiously implemented the Party’s educational and artistic policies, taken it as its responsibility to lead and promote the reform and development of Chinese dance education, pursued the value of “dancing for the people and making contributions to the times”, adhered to the principle of cultivating morality and talents, comprehensively fulfilled important functions such as talent cultivation, scientific research, social services, cultural inheritance and innovation, international exchange and cooperation, and strived to build a world-class dance university with Chinese characteristics.