World Dance Education Alliance Launches in Beijing

4 December 2024

This October, Beijing Dance Academy invited Central School of Ballet to be a member of its newly founded World Dance Education Alliance (WDEA). The alliance aims to create a collaborative platform for leading dance and arts education institutions from around the world.

The WDEA held its establishment ceremony and International Dance Deans/Directors Forum on 17 to 19 October 2024 in Beijing, China. This event also marked the 70th anniversary celebration of the Beijing Dance Academy. On behalf of Central School of Ballet, Dr Jamieson Dryburgh, Director of Higher Education, presented an overview of the School entitled ‘Nurturing Passion and Talent into Excellence’.

For Central, being part of the World Dance Education Alliance is an opportunity to contribute to the advancement of dance education on a global platform. Celebrating its 70th anniversary, Beijing Dance Academy is an impressive organisation with whom we can be proud to collaborate. Similarly, engagement with the initiative will afford Central new international relationships with similar dance institutions.

Nearly 70 institutions have joined to form the collaborative innovation platform for worldwide exchange and cooperation in dance education and talent cultivation. The WDEA will function as an information exchange and sharing mechanism exploring cooperation models for student cultivation and artist development. It will create dance practice platforms between dance education institutions, joint academic research on dance education and build a talent sharing mechanism.

Central is looking forward to contributing our experience and insights, and building new relationships through WDEA’s schedule of events as we move into 2025.