The IBTA represents Irish ballet teachers registered with highly respected worldwide organisations: Royal Academy of Dance (RAD), Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD), and International Dance Teachers Association (IDTA), British Ballet Organization (BBO), Association of Russian Ballet & Theatre Arts (ARBTA) and others. We undergo extensive years of training and subsequent examinations to be qualified to teach and train ballet students from recreational up to pre professional level in a safe and disciplined environment. IBTA also includes representatives from Ballet Ireland, Ireland’s national ballet company which is funded by the Arts Council and Irish National Youth Ballet (INYB), Cork Youth Ballet Company and Youth Ballet West (YBW). All ballet schools in Ireland are privately run education establishments, and teachers are both self employed and employers, paying significant tax, local charges and rents etc. They are important contributors to the economy. Our members are dance educators.

During the Pandemic, we formed the IBTA as a support mechanism for ballet teachers across Ireland.  It became the focal point for the representation of those ballet teachers and demonstrated the need for collaboration and communication as one body. 
The practice of classical ballet education was not recognised formally in the road map for reopening Ireland during the pandemic. However, the IBTA had a more powerful, united voice through being together. The IBTA were able to lobby the Government for recognition as a sector and respond to the media to ensure that good quality information was available to our customers – our students and their families. Collectively, we were able to respond as a sector to develop safety protocols for teaching ballet in the context of Covid 19, and to support our members through this difficult time.

Ballet is defined as a form of dance developed initially in Italy in the late 16th century. Ballet has been part of this country’s cultural landscape since the first commercial theatre was built in Dublin around 1636. In 1927, a significant development took place when William Butler Yeats invited Ninette de Valois to help him establish the Abbey Theatre School of Ballet at the National Theatre. This school has immense importance in the history of Irish ballet and much of Ireland’s subsequent ballet history has stemmed from it.

Ballet activity in Ireland has grown enormously since then and ballet classes are hugely popular with many students progressing on to professional training in schools in the U.K. and further afield. Classes offer not only the opportunity to train and progress towards becoming a professional dancer, but also provide both health and fitness and are a form of creative expression; an important asset to the educational & social lives of Irish people.

Irish ballet teachers have trained professional dancers who feature in some of the finest companies around the world. Current examples include:

• Zoe Ashe-Browne – Royal Ballet of Flanders, trained by Debbie Allen, Debbie Allen Dance School
• Aisling Brangan – Scottish Ballet, trained by Mairead Langan, Metropolitan School of Dance
• Melissa Hamilton – Royal Ballet, trained by Jennifer Bullick, Jennifer Bullick School of Ballet
• Niamh O’Flannagain – Ballet Ireland, trained by Rachel Goode, Goode School of Dance
• Gearoid Solan – Zurich Ballet, trained by Grainne MacArdle, Celbridge School of Ballet