Beijing Dance Academy is an exclusive dance institution of higher education in China established in 1954. It has grown from a secondary educational institution named Beijing Dance School to a leading dance institution of higher learning in 1978. Degree-granting programs for MA and MFA in dance studies began in 1999 and 2005 respectively, followed by a joint program for Ph.D students initiated in 2010 through cooperation with Peking University.
Beijing Dance Academy comprises sixteen major academic components: the Department of Chinese Classical Dance, the Department of Chinese Ethnic and Folk Dance, the Ballet Department, the Choreography Department, the Department of Dance Studies, the Department of Social Dance, the Department of Musical Theatre, the Department of Art Communication, the Department of Art Design, the Education and Research Center for Modern Dance, the Department of Liberal Arts, the Teaching and Research Department for Ideological and Political Theory, the Graduate Faculty, the Affiliated Secondary School of Beijing Dance Academy, the School of Continuing Education, the School of Dance Grade Examination and Education, and the BDA Youth Dance Company.