Educational Programs
A first experience with the arts can last a lifetime
Through Connecticut Ballet's Center for Dance Education, more than 300,000 young people have experienced dance through school programs, student performances, community partnerships and training opportunities.
Dance can build confidence. Encourage creative expression. Expand cultural understanding. And introduce a young person to possibilities they may never have imagined.
For some, it is their first experience with professional dance.
For others, it is the beginning of something much bigger.
Choose the program that fits your school or community program:
Special thanks to GenRe for its support of Center for Dance Education!
Book an assembly program
Programs offered during the 2026-2027 school year: Backstage at the Ballet – World of Dance – Let’s Get Fit!
NOTE: All programs can be delivered virtually as well as in-person.
Programs
Programs range in cost from $125/workshop class to $1350-$1500 for two assemblies performances and a workshop in a single day at one or more schools in a geographic area. Oftentimes, two schools split the cost of one day with an assembly scheduled at each school (typically before and after the lunch waves).
The cost
Now booking for the 2026-2027 school year!
Contact Connecticut Ballet at 860-293-1039 or 203-964-1211 for availability, fees, and residency information.
Booking and feedback
Bring a Teaching Artist to your school
Connecticut Ballet teaching artists come to your school and teach during the school day.
In-school classes
Multi-week after-school classes and residencies, such as an eight-week sampler program. Workshop classes start at $125.
After-school classes and residencies
Contact Connecticut Ballet at (860) 293-1039 or (203) 964-1211 for availability, fees and residency information.
Not sure which option fits? We can design a hybrid program for your school.
Booking
Share the Magic student performances
Connecticut Ballet presents a special, 75-minute narrated performance for elementary and middle school students, followed by a question-and-answer session led by Artistic Director Brett Raphael. Program offered to Hartford Public Schools through Hartford Performs but is open to all students in public, private, parochial or home school environments.
The performance
Hartford Public Schools and other schools pay $5 to $10 per student. Chaperones are free and districts cover buses. Thanks to the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation for its continuing support.
Cost
Bring your school group
Free and reduced tickets
Access is part of our mission.
Through partner organizations, Connecticut Ballet provides free tickets to community members who have not attended the ballet before or have faced barriers to attending. Past guests include groups from CRT’s The Retreat, Bloomfield Seniors, Mt. Olive Baptist Church Youth Ministry, Hartford Young Scholars, Inspirica and Starfish Connection.
Free tickets for first-time audiences
Interested in being a sponsor?
See Ballet Ambassadors page for more info.
Design your own program
Combine an assembly, in-school classes and a Share the Magic performance into one plan for your school.
Mix and match
Tell us your dates, grade levels and goals, and we will put together a program that fits.
Built around your calendar
Outcomes and partners
Specific dance vocabulary skills
Greater self-confidence and creative expression
Physical fitness
Cultural literacy through exposure to professional performances
What students gain
Cedarhurst School, New Haven · Wakeman-Burroughs Boys & Girls Club, Bridgeport · Children’s Center of Hamden · Grassroots Danbury · Ellington Public Library · International School at Dundee and Julian Curtiss Elementary School, Greenwich · New Beginnings Academy, Bridgeport · Wequonnoc Magnet School, Taftville, amongst the dozens of schools and social service orgs we’ve partnered with around Connecticut.
Where we have worked
Our educational programs began in response to a need for access to dance instruction in Stamford, Norwalk, and Bridgeport. Since 1991, the program has grown to serve mainstream students, residential treatment facilities and juvenile justice detention centers with classes in a variety of dance styles from West African to ballroom and modern dance.
Our Center for Dance Education
"My class was completely fascinated by the different accents, costumes, dances, music, instruments and languages you showed us. Some chose to write letters to the dancers."
2nd grade teacher, Sharon, CT
"When I first heard that we were having a ballet assembly, I moaned and groaned thinking that ballet was a slow sport that only girls like to do. You proved me wrong. Ballet is really interesting now that I have seen you perform. I am inspired by how healthy and strong you need to be to do dance. I thought you were great."
William, a 4th grader