Classical Ballet

The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) is an international dance education and training organization, and examination board that specialises in the teaching and technique of Ballet.

The RAD was created with the objective to improve the standard of ballet training in the UK and, in pursuit of that goal, a new teaching method and dance technique was devised for the Academy by a group of eminent European dancers.

There are currently over 1,000. R.A.D students in full-time or part-time RAD teacher training programmes and each year the examinations syllabi are taught to over 250,000 students. The RAD's Examinations Board is accredited by Ofqual and is validated by the Council for Dance Education and Training.

The most identifiable aspect of the RAD method is the attention to detail when learning the basic steps and the progression in difficulty is often very slow. While the difficulty of an exercise may only increase slightly from grade to grade, more importance is placed on whether the student is performing the step with improved technique.

For example, plie exercises are employed consistently throughout the lower grades to enable the student to progressively deepen the plie and improve turnout. The principle behind this is that if enough time is spent achieving optimal technique before introducing new vocabulary, the easier it is for the student to learn the harder steps, while exercising basic technique to the maximum at all times.