Short answer
Check the licence first — dance schools are not licensed in Australia, so check qualifications and public liability insurance instead. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 1,947 Australian dance schools in this directory, only 10.5% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 3.8% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Dance Schools handle ballet, jazz, hip hop, contemporary and ballroom classes for children and adults, and performance training. This is what to check before you sign a child up for a year of classes, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
There is no dance school licence — so check something else
Dance teaching is unlicensed. Teachers working with children need a Working With Children Check, and the school should have a child-safe policy it can show you. Ballet in particular has recognised teaching qualifications, and a sprung floor is the single physical thing that protects young dancers' joints.
Verify the Working With Children Check through your state's scheme. Dance teaching qualifications are issued by bodies such as the RAD and Cecchetti, which publish teacher registers.
What 1,947 Australian dance schools actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For dance schools:
| What we checked | Dance Schools | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 10.5% | 21.5% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 52.4% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 3.8% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 75.9% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 94.3% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 17 | 39 |
What goes wrong with dance schools
- Teachers without Working With Children Checks
- Classes on concrete rather than a sprung floor
- Concert costumes and photo packages that cost more than the term
What to ask before the work starts
- Do all teachers hold Working With Children Checks, and what is your child-safe policy?
- What are the teachers' qualifications, and is the floor sprung?
- What are the full-year costs including concerts, costumes and exams?
A dance school who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median dance school in this directory has 17 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the dance schools are
Sydney (174), Melbourne (143), Brisbane (109), Adelaide (63), Perth (61), Joondalup (37). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best dance school in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do dance schools need a licence in Australia?
- No. Dance teaching is unlicensed. Teachers working with children need a Working With Children Check, and the school should have a child-safe policy it can show you. Ballet in particular has recognised teaching qualifications, and a sprung floor is the single physical thing that protects young dancers' joints.
- How do I check a dance school's licence?
- Verify the Working With Children Check through your state's scheme. Dance teaching qualifications are issued by bodies such as the RAD and Cecchetti, which publish teacher registers.
- What percentage of Australian dance schools have a verifiable ABN?
- 10.5% of the 1,947 dance schools in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.5% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a dance school have?
- The median dance school here has 17. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare dance schools near you
1,947 dance schools, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
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