The Top Ten Ballet Schools of 2023-2024
“Scandal!”, “Intriguing…”, and “Audacity!” are all words that have consistently surrounded A Ballet Education's Big Ten list since its inception.
When A Ballet Education first began publishing a list of the ten most sought-after ballet schools in 2014, the intent was simply to inform my opinion given the context of the current season; however, I have not published a Big Ten list since 2018 due to how much backlash I received each year. Company directors, competition directors, professional dancers (offended that their alma mater didn't make the list), and the ballet world in general said, "Who is he to decide?"
My answer has always been the same: this is my perspective, my business, my blog, and my opinion. I have never claimed to be the authority in ballet, but based on social media and Google rankings, love me or despise me, I have become one of the top resources for the inside scoop in training and placing ballet students.
Reference the past catchy opening lines like “Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!” (2015); “It is an Olympic year”, and “Like all major competitions, there are favorites going in,” (2016); “I see London, I see France, where is the best education to dance?” (2017); and the article that started it all: “If this was college football, well it isn’t…” (2014), and you will note my candid approach to this always contentious listing.
You might be sitting in Nutcracker rehearsal, in between classes, or sitting in your dance school lobby reading this article, waiting in anticipation for me to just name the schools already.
Let's begin this year's inevitable controversy in the same candid “fashion”:
Tastemakers do not last forever! The fall of the great fashion houses in recent years marked the end of an era of reliable brand name quality and integrity, and now ballet has arrived at the same fate. This year, the fall in ranking of some of the great ballet schools might signify the evolution of ballet. When the great couture houses fell, it was because the audience, clients, and customers changed. People didn't need custom couture, and people didn't need to travel to see the collections, as fast fashion ready-to-wear items became the norm.
Now, more than ever, ballet is going through the same metamorphosis. We have adapted to "fast ballet" in the style of ballet competitions; where students perform new things each year in new costumes and seeking new opportunities. This, coupled with social media, globalization, and the new generation of ballet trying to keep a dying art form alive, has shifted the reputations, directorships, and perceptions of the schools comprising the Big Ten. Rankings have changed because the landscape of success has changed.
The last few years of ballet both pre and post-pandemic have been dominated by one country, which happens to be my homeland, and that country is South Korea. Schools like SunHwa, the YeWon School, Lee Wonju Ballet Academy, and the National Arts University have been recognized time and time again on the international platform for their consistency and excellence. However, these South Korean schools are not as accessible as other schools. These schools have yet to hop on the South Korean beauty, K-Pop, and BBQ trend train, so these schools have not globalized their student body or even taken advantage of social media, which is probably a good thing for their students and the quality of training.
Quality schools outside of South Korea are also on the rise of all around the world, from Brazil to Singapore, Portugal to New Zealand, these international schools are becoming more visible and building strong reputations. How do these schools begin to compete with traditional prestige?
The same way a well-balanced state flagship university competes with an Ivy League (think UC Berkley vs. Harvard). The answer is a little more straightforward in the world of academia, as everyone gets the same degree. Still, when it comes to ballet, it always boils down to one thing and one thing only: preference: preference of movement, preference of body type, preference of repertory, style, and pedagogy. These preferences determine the one thing that matters while pursuing a career in ballet: a job. So, who is getting hired? The answers to this question are what caused the greatest shifts in this year’s Big Ten.
Because most small ballet schools are not attached to a professional company, it makes it very difficult for a small ballet school to make rankings against the schools directly feeding a company…however it has happened!
