Beijing Dance Academy is an exclusive dance institution of higher education in  China established in 1954. It has grown from a secondary educational institution  named Beijing Dance School to a leading dance institution of higher learning in  1978. Degree-granting programs for MA and MFA in dance studies began in 1999 and  2005 respectively, followed by a joint program for Ph.D students initiated in  2010 through cooperation with Peking University. Being one of the most  prestigious and largest dance schools worldwide, the Academy offers programs at secondary, undergraduate and graduate levels with rigorous and well-round  curriculum.

Known as  “cradle of dancers”, where numerous dance students are blossoming and  harvesting, Beijing Dance Academy has currently about 600 full-time faculty  members and 3500 full-time students, neighboring the picturesque Zizhu Park and  National Library.    Beijing  Dance Academy comprises sixteen major academic components: the Department of  Chinese Classical Dance, the Department of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance, the  Ballet Department, the Choreography Department, the Department of Dance Studies,  the Department of Social Dance, the Department of Musical Theatre, the  Department of Art Communication, the Department of Art Design, the Education and  Research Center for Modern Dance, the Department of Liberal Arts, the Teaching  and Research Department for Ideological and Political Theory, the Graduate  Faculty, the Affiliated Secondary School of Beijing Dance Academy, the School of  Continuing Education, the School of Dance Grade Examination and Education, and  the BDA Youth Dance Company. A unique system of dance education with Chinese  characteristics has been established concerning academic subjects such as dance  performance, choreography, dance history and theory, art design, art management,  new media, and somatic science of dance.   In the past  60 years, the Academy has been guided by the Party’s policies of education and  arts, operating on principles of ideals, cultures, laws and harmonious  development, promoting brilliant tradition of Chinese culture as well as  assimilating excellent cultures from abroad. With school motto as “Morality and  Harmony, Nature and Human, Culture and Dance, Virtue and Art”, the academy  endeavors to sustain its tradition of “patriotism and love of school and dance”,  stress the development of high cultures, brilliant artists and quality  popularization of art education, and contribute to build up a world top dance  school of higher education aiming at renaissance of Chinese culture and  development of dance.