The Australian Ballet School

How The Australian Ballet School comes across

The Australian Ballet School presents itself, accurately, as the country's apex classical institution — "Australia's national centre for elite vocational classical dance and the school of The Australian Ballet," established in 1964 and envisioned by The Australian Ballet's founding Artistic Director Dame Peggy van Praagh. This is not a local studio and its materials make no attempt to read like one: entry to the full-time and after-school programs is by audition, roughly 100 students train full-time, and the eight-level program pairs studio training with academic study, a boarding program, and health and wellbeing staff. The lineage it foregrounds is the differentiator — graduates including most Principal Artists of The Australian Ballet and figures such as Paris Opera Ballet's Hannah O'Neill. Notably, the same site offers un-auditioned community classes, early learning and holiday intensives "for all abilities." The impression is of a government-funded, charity-status training body for genuinely vocational aspirants, with a modest public-program door for everyone else.

An editor's impression, drawn from the school's own website and public materials, 13 June 2026. Not a review — if it misses the mark, the school or a parent can tell us via the form below.