The Australian Ballet School is extending its contribution to dancer training with a new professional development program for current and aspiring teachers.
Beginning in 2027, the Teacher Training Program will combine flexible, part-time study with online learning, onsite intensives and a mentored teaching placement. It has been designed for established teachers seeking to develop their practice, dancers preparing to move into teaching and those at the beginning of their careers as educators.
Any serious discussion of dancer development eventually arrives at teaching. Syllabuses, facilities and performance opportunities form part of a dancer’s education; teachers shape how technique, correction, ambition and pressure are encountered in the studio each day.
“Great teachers change lives. Countless dancers can point to a teacher who inspired them, challenged them or helped them believe in themselves,” said Megan Connelly, Artistic Director and Head of The Australian Ballet School.
Connelly said the work of a teacher extends beyond the pursuit of technical excellence, encompassing the way young people are encouraged to learn, develop and build confidence.
That broader understanding of the role is central to the new program. Participants will study artistic excellence and ballet pedagogy alongside professional practice, scientific and psychological integrity, leadership, dancer wellbeing and current approaches to teaching and learning.
The program has been developed under the leadership of Mark Annear, Head of Teacher Training. Annear said dance educators now balance a wider range of responsibilities, drawing on professional judgement and an understanding of how students learn and develop alongside their artistic knowledge.
It is an encouraging acknowledgement of the complexity of contemporary dance teaching. Ballet pedagogy remains central, within a program that also treats leadership, wellbeing and student development as part of the same professional standard.
The flexible structure is intended to make the training accessible to participants in different locations and at varying stages of their careers, while allowing them to balance existing professional and personal commitments.
The School’s decision to invest in teachers also extends the reach of its accumulated knowledge beyond its own students. Each participant will carry that learning back into other studios and future classrooms, where its influence may be felt by many more dancers over the course of a teaching career.