Our Placement Philosophy

ATD takes pride in the carefully crafted placements we provide for dancers. Rather than typical tracks, we take the whole student into account when considering skill level, body awareness, safety and developmental appropriateness.

Free trial/placement classes are a great way for our staff to assess the best initial fit for your dancer. After the end of the school year, we provide families with personalized placements for each dancer. Classes that are levels III and above are often two-year courses. Repeating the same advanced class is not only normal, it is to be expected as a way for dancers to expand their knowledge before moving on.

Making the Leap to Teen Classes

Our Teen classes are designed for dancers 12+ and are the next step in a challenging course curriculum. Because these classes move at a faster pace and cover more technique, the class levels will vary between the two age sets. For instance, a student in Jazz IV might graduate into a Teen Jazz II class. 

The Next Leap

We are constantly refining and reconsidering our class requirements for our advanced dancers, to ensure that we are training well rounded, multifaceted artists. Starting this fall, all dancers enrolled in a Teen level V+ class of any genre, will be required to enroll in at least one class of any other genre. In years past, we have specifically required advanced dancers to take ballet. In light of recent conversations we have had as a faculty regarding the decentering of European dance forms in our programming, we are opening these requirements to include all the genres we offer.

Building strong foundations for every dancer is our priority, and we believe in building life skills through dance.