Primary
Ages 11–18 | 13–17 training hours per week
Primary is the next stage in Adage Ballet Academy’s curriculum after Preparatory and is designed for dancers ages eleven to eighteen entering the central years of classical ballet training. This tier is divided into three progressive subdivisions: Foundation, Essentials, and Advanced. Dancers receive between thirteen and seventeen hours of instruction per week, depending on their subdivision. Placement is determined by audition and reflects each dancer’s physical development, technical ability, and artistic maturity. While age may help guide group placement, it is not the determining factor; dancers are placed where they can train safely, productively, and with the appropriate level of challenge. Students may move from one subdivision to another at any point in the year according to individual readiness.
About Primary
The Primary tier takes its name from its central purpose: to guide dancers through the primary components of ballet with increasing depth, clarity, and responsibility.
In Foundation, dancers reinforce the fundamental abilities of the body, connect technique to correct anatomical function, and begin pointe work with careful attention to strength, alignment, and safety.
In Essentials, students develop confidence in the major steps, qualities, and coordination expected of a well-rounded ballet dancer, while learning to carry the same technical clarity from demi-pointe onto pointe.
In Advanced, the work becomes more complex and physically demanding, preparing dancers for the expectations of Adagio and pre-professional training through stronger center work, deeper artistic challenges, and the first experiences of pas de deux, solo preparation, and character interpretation.
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Because the Primary years contain several important stages of development, dancers usually spend more than one year in each subdivision and may remain in the tier for several seasons. The curriculum is designed to support this long arc of training with patience and precision, allowing students to build strength, coordination, musicality, pointe technique, artistry, and technical understanding over time. Primary dancers may also be invited to take additional classes in lower tiers at no extra cost, giving dedicated students the opportunity to increase their weekly training hours while revisiting earlier material with greater maturity. This process helps dancers strengthen the foundations that support more advanced work.
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As a performing academy, Adage believes stage experience to be an essential part of a dancer’s education. Primary students participate in major performance opportunities, including Winter Tales and the Spring Showcase. As dancers progress through Foundation, Essentials, and Advanced, their performance responsibilities grow from ensemble work toward smaller groupings, featured roles, variations, and solo opportunities. At this level, students begin to experience more of the discipline required of a performing dancer: learning longer choreography, sustaining musical and spatial precision, developing character, and carrying responsibility within both group and individual roles.
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For Essentials and Advanced students who are ready for additional individual challenges, ballet competitions may also become part of the training pathway. Competition participation is optional and depends on age, readiness, and faculty approval. When appropriate, dancers may prepare classical or contemporary solos through private coaching, allowing them to develop greater independence, stage presence, and artistic ownership. Whether through academy productions, special performances, or competition preparation, the Primary tier gives dancers a deeper experience of ballet as a technical discipline, a theatrical art form, and a demanding practice of personal growth.
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Primary students attend four-five classes per week.
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Foundation
Mon – 4:00–7:30 PM
Tues – 4:00–7:30 PM
Wed – 4:00–6:30 PM
Thur – 4:00–7:30 PM​
Essentials
Mon – 4:00–7:30 PM
Tues – 4:00–7:30 PM
Wed – 4:00–6:30 PM
Thur – 4:00–6:30 PM
Sat – 10:00AM–1:00 PM
Advanced
Mon – 4:00–7:30 PM
Tues – 4:00–7:30 PM
Wed – 4:00–6:30 PM
Thur – 4:00–7:30 PM
Sat – 10:00AM–2:00 PM
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This schedule provides developing dancers with consistent weekly training while remaining age-appropriate for their primary stage of study at Adage Ballet Academy. To keep families connected to their dancer’s progress, Adage hosts six official observation days throughout the year, aligned with the end of each six-week session. These observation days give families the opportunity to see how their dancer is developing within the class environment and to better understand the progression of the curriculum.
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Apply for Primary
Primary and all subsequent tiers of training at Adage Ballet Academy require a formal audition for placement. Families interested in enrollment should complete the application form below. Within the form, applicants may select their preferred audition option, including one of our scheduled audition dates, a video audition, or a private audition.
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Tentative audition dates for the 2026–2027 school year are:
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Saturday, August 22, 2026
Saturday, August 29, 2026
Times TBD
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Video auditions and private auditions are also available by request. Placement is determined by faculty according to each dancer’s physical, technical, and artistic readiness, ensuring that every student is placed in the tier best suited to their growth.
A $25 non-refundable application fee is required to process each application. Following the application review or trial class, accepted students will receive a formal placement offer by email.