There’s a moment when a young dancer stops just enjoying ballet — and starts needing it. When they practise at home without being asked. When they watch performances and study every detail. When they ask if they can come to class on the days they don’t have it.
If your child has reached that moment, you’re in the right place.
At the Russian School of Ballet, our Senior Division offers authentic Vaganova training from age 9 — the same method that has taken our students to the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow. It’s serious, structured, and taught by Russian-trained instructors who know exactly how to develop young talent.
Not sure your child is ready for that level? We have a gentler starting point too — no pressure, no exams, just a genuine love for dance developed at their pace.
A quick note on how our levels work
The Vaganova method is structured across 8 levels, each one building directly on the last. Students typically spend two years at each level (2-3 lessons a week) — one year learning, one year deepening. There are no shortcuts, and we don’t apologise for that. What this system produces is a dancer whose technique is so thoroughly understood by their body that it becomes second nature. Every level has a purpose. Nothing is arbitrary.
Students joining from another school are assessed individually and placed at the level where they’ll genuinely grow — not where they’ll coast through, and not where they’ll struggle unnecessarily.
This is where the real work begins — and where the most remarkable changes happen.
In Level 1, your child learns the vocabulary of classical ballet from the ground up. Not just the steps, but why each movement exists, how the body should feel from the inside, and how to use strength and flexibility together rather than fighting against each other. Parents often tell us that within a few months they notice something different at home — a stillness, a new way of moving through a room, a quiet confidence that wasn’t there before.
Level 2 is where, for girls who are physically ready, the journey to pointe begins. We don’t rush this. Readiness is assessed carefully by the teacher — it’s about bone development, strength, and technique, not age or enthusiasm. When a student moves to pointe at RSB, it’s because her body is genuinely prepared for it. That preparation means she dances safely, beautifully, and without the injuries that cut so many young dancers’ careers short before they’ve really started.
By Level 3, students who began as tentative beginners are becoming real dancers. You can see it in how they carry themselves on stage. You can see it in how they handle a difficult correction — not with tears, but with focus.
Two classes per week minimum. Examinations available annually. The Excellerate Programme is available for students from Level 2 and upwards.
Technique at this stage is no longer the question — it’s the foundation everything else is built on. The question now is: who is this dancer?
Combinations become more complex and more demanding. Pointe work for female students deepens into territory that requires genuine strength and control — multiple turns, sustained balances, intricate footwork that looks effortless only because of the hours of structured work behind it. For all students, grand allegro, batterie, and extended adagio challenge both the body and the mind.
But what parents notice most during these levels isn’t the technical leap — it’s the artistic one. This is the stage when a student stops executing steps and starts communicating something. When you watch them from the audience and feel something. That shift — from technically correct to genuinely moving — is one of the most extraordinary things to witness in a young dancer.
Students at this level are also eligible to audition for our Youth Russian Ballet Company, performing in full-scale productions at Roodepoort Theatre. The stage experience they gain here is irreplaceable.
Three or more classes per week are recommended. Annual examinations with external examiners from leading Russian academies.
Very few students reach this stage. Those who do have spent years building something that can’t be faked — a technique that lives in the body, not just the memory, and an artistic maturity that comes from real stage experience and real disciplined work.
At this level, the training is as close to professional as it gets outside of a full-time ballet academy. Complex variations, virtuosic allegro, refined adagio, and advanced pointe work are standard. More importantly, students are developing the ability to inhabit a role — to bring genuine artistry and interpretation to everything they perform.
RSB students from this level have gone on to train at the Vaganova Academy in St. Petersburg, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy in Moscow, and Kosygin University in Russia. Not as exceptions — as the natural outcome of what this level of training makes possible.
If your child is here, they already know that ballet isn’t something they do. It’s who they are.
Daily classes recommended.Â
New students joining RSB without our Junior Division preparation are strongly encouraged to add Ballet Body Development classes — it’s the fastest route to feeling confident and progressing well in this program.
Alongside classical technique, our senior students can explore:
If you’ve ever watched Swan Lake and felt the energy shift completely when the Spanish, Hungarian, or Russian dancers take the stage — that’s Character Dance. It’s theatrical, rhythmic, physically demanding, and genuinely joyful in a way that’s completely different from classical ballet.
Character Dance is a core part of the Vaganova syllabus and is taught at institutions like the Royal Ballet School in London and the Australian Ballet School. Outside of Russia and a handful of specialist schools worldwide, it’s rarely taught properly at all. At RSB, it’s part of how we train complete dancers — ones who can handle the full range of what classical ballet demands of a performer.
For students, it’s often the class they love most. The music is infectious, the movement is expressive, and the character shoes are — let’s be honest — extremely satisfying to stamp.
Neo-classical ballet keeps everything that makes classical training extraordinary — the precision, the clean lines, the musicality, the physical discipline — but removes the narrative and the elaborate costuming in favour of pure movement and modern artistic expression. Think George Balanchine, who trained in the same Russian tradition we teach at RSB and went on to reshape the entire ballet world.
For students who have a strong classical foundation and want to develop versatility and contemporary relevance, this class is the bridge. It makes dancers more complete, more interesting, and more employable in today’s professional dance landscape.
Ballet trains the body to be precise. Contemporary dance teaches it to be free. The two together produce dancers who are genuinely versatile — and in today’s professional dance world, versatility is everything.
Our Contemporary classes draw from Release technique, Contact Improvisation, Graham, and Cunningham — not as separate styles to memorise, but as tools for expression. Students learn to listen to music differently, to move from impulse rather than instruction, and to find their own artistic voice alongside the classical one they’re building in their technique classes.
For teenagers especially, Contemporary is often the class where something unlocks. Where a student who has always been technically strong discovers that they also have something genuinely personal to say through movement. That discovery changes everything.
 Highly recommended for all new studentsÂ
Joining RSB at age 10 or older probably means you’ve missed the years of physical preparation our younger students complete through Tippitoes, PreBallet, and Level 0 — the slow, systematic work that builds the flexibility, core strength, and muscle development that Vaganova training demands.
This program fills that gap directly.
Through focused Vaganova-based exercises, students develop the specific physical foundations their technique classes are already assuming they have — back and hamstring flexibility, core and gluteal strength, arm strength, foot flexibility, and body awareness. The difference in their regular ballet class is usually noticeable within a term.
We recommend this program to every student joining RSB for the first time, for at least their first year. It’s not remedial — it’s simply the smartest way to set a dancer up to succeed.
Not every dancer wants the full pre-professional journey — and that’s completely fine. Some students love ballet deeply and simply want to dance well, stay active, and be part of an environment where excellence is normal even when intense commitment isn’t required.
Our Recreational Programme gives students aged 9 and up exactly that — quality Vaganova-based training, proper technique, and the joy of dance without examination pressure or intensive scheduling demands. It’s also a natural starting point for students who aren’t sure yet how far they want to take their training. Many of our most committed pre-professional students started here.
For 10 to 12-year-olds who are new to ballet or want to explore it without a major time commitment, this class offers something rare: real technique, taught properly, in a format that fits around everything else life already demands.
We use the same Vaganova foundations that underpin our pre-professional programme — correct body placement, proper muscle engagement, genuine musicality. Students just progress at a gentler pace. What they build here is real, and if they ever decide they want more, the foundation is already there.
One class a week. No examinations required. A genuine welcome to ballet.
Starting ballet as a teenager takes a particular kind of courage. The body is less forgiving than it was at seven, the self-consciousness is real, and there’s an entirely reasonable question of whether it’s too late to start.
It isn’t.
Our Ballet Teen class is designed specifically for this moment — for students who have always wanted to try ballet but haven’t yet, or who danced when they were younger and want to find their way back. The teaching adapts to adolescent bodies and the specific challenges they bring. The atmosphere is supportive and unstuffy. And the progress, even from a standing start at 13 or 14, can be genuinely surprising.
You don’t need any experience. You just need to show up.
New to RSB? If your child hasn’t trained with us through our Junior Division, we strongly recommend adding our Ballet Body Development program alongside this one. It builds the physical foundations that make everything else click faster.