The American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is considered one of the greatest dance companies in the world. Founded in 1939, the current company boasts renowned principal dancers such as Misty Copeland and Isabella Boylston. Few ballet companies rival ABT in size, scope, and outreach. We greatly respect the ABT for being one of the most innovative and progressive ballet companies in the industry today and we are inspired by their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

Read more about ABT here.

The ABT® National Training Curriculum consists of a comprehensive set of age-appropriate, outcome-based guidelines to provide the highest quality ballet training to dance students of all ages and skill levels.  Under the direction of ABT Artistic Director Kevin McKenzie, ABT’s National Training Curriculum was designed and written by Franco De Vita and Raymond Lukens in collaboration with ABT’s Artistic Advisors and the Medical Advisory Board. 

For more information about the ABT NTC curriculum, please click here. 

Every student’s body is different. A teacher must constantly analyse and readjust corrections to find the perfect answer to a dancer’s needs, or at least perfect for that day. The CMSD teaching team has been teaching for a long time and we have found one of the greatest restrictions of the syllabi that we have been teaching is that the exercises are fixed. We have had very little leeway to make tweaks to accommodate a child who learns differently. With the ABT Curriculum, we are able to develop an appropriate syllabi and courses that takes into consideration students’ skill level and stage of development, and thus create an environment where the learner can achieve his or her maximum potential.

The ABT/NTC is a highly researched and comprehensive curriculum derived from three of the great ballet curricula of the world; Russian, French, and Italian. This curriculum also includes the scientific information of how the young brain evolves and offers detailed recommendations for age appropriate training at every level.

One outstanding feature for me is that ABT created a Medical Advisory Board of specialists across all fields (from child psychology, physical therapists, orthopaedists, nutritionists, to experts in motor learning, etc.) to incorporate the latest research on how to form a healthy dancer and define what that really means. Teachers are trained on how to teach dance students how to use their bodies correctly, focusing on kinetics and coordination, as well as anatomy and proper body alignment.

This, we feel, is important. It is not enough to only produce dancers with good technique. We want to have healthy and happy dancers. 

Artistically, the National Training Curriculum strives to provide dance students with a rich knowledge of classical ballet technique and the ability to adapt to all styles and techniques of dance. The curriculum supports the development of coordination of the upper body to the lower body; the use of clean, unaffected port de bras; and the use of musicality to promote technical, muscular and artistic development through proper dynamics and quality of movement; as well as the use of proper turnout and healthy placement.

The philosophy of ABT’s National Training Curriculum is to encourage pre-professional and professional dancers to move efficiently and naturally and become more perceptive of different ways of approaching movements and styles. The dancer who possesses the ability to distinguish and comprehend different approaches is a more complete artist, one who can move with ease from one style of dance to another with the added advantage of being less prone to injury.

We feel that this curriculum will have the greatest long term benefits for our students to develop and excel in dance.

At CMSD, our Pre-Primary through Level Three classes will be taught by ABT® Certified Teachers Esther Yong who has successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Program in Pre-Primary through Level Three of the ABT® National Training Curriculum.  

Pre-Primary through Five will be taught by ABT® Certified Teacher Charlotte Marn & Ng Yun Jie who have successfully completed the ABT® Teacher Training Program in Pre-Primary through Level Five ABT® National Training Curriculum.

The Charlotte Marn School of Dance is the first & only dance school in Singapore to offer the ABT Student Examinations. ABT Student Examinations benefit students by serving as a skill assessment to document students’ progress, build their confidence, and improve their training. 

An adjudicator from the ABT National Training Curriculum will observe the students as they perform a prepared examination class. The class is prepared and conducted by the students’ ABT Certified Teacher. The students must have the examination class memorized. Each participating student receives an individual rubric outlining his/her proficiency both technically and artistically with comments from the Examiner. 

Students who successfully pass the exam will also receive an official certificate listing the level of the examination class they took along with their level of distinction. The four levels of distinction are Pass, Pass with Merit, Pass with Honors, and Pass with High Honors.

At CMSD, we feel that examinations are a tool to document progress and a way to build confidence in ability. Students are offered the opportunity to have their achievements in dance recognized by entering into ABT National Training Curriculum Examinations and are assessed based on their skill level and artistic presentation.

A systematic training system ensures that all skills are covered and presented at the right time of a student’s physical development. As they progress, they will learn appropriate skills until they are able to use them together as full-fledged dancers.

Students receive a personalized Rubric with constructive feedback and a Certificate of Participation with their name, date of the examination, Class Level and Level of Distinction.

One very exciting bonus is that all students taking the ABT exams will be offered a Master Class by the exam adjudicator. Master classes provide a way for the feedback from our Affiliate Examiners to the Presenting Certified Teachers to be reinforced with their specific students in the levels that were presented, benefitting both the presenting teacher and the participating students.

The master classes will be scheduled following the completion of all student examinations.

One of the most exciting parts about this shift is that we see many opportunities to connect to the world and beyond.  

Some of our plans include: 

• A bi-monthly workshop with an overseas ABT teacher online. We have already started these sessions with Ms. Amelia and the students really enjoyed the experience! 
• We will have a live pianist once a month in class from now on.  

 Other opportunities for the students includes potential participation in the following ABT programs: 

• ABT NTC holds annual summer intensive programmes in NYC 
• NYU ABT BA In Dance in NYC 
• NYU ABT Teachers Certification