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The National Academy of Dance (and later, the National Academy of Arts) was a residential conservatory of dance and music that operated in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois from 1972-1978 and again from 1982-1987. The Academy was the brainchild of University of Illinois English Professor Dr. Gilbert D. Wright. Although he was not a regular connoisseur of dance, Wright was inspired by a Royal Ballet School performance that he saw during a 1966 research trip to London, when he returned to the university he decided to develop a similar residential ballet conservatory in Illinois.
Wright began laying the groundwork for the National Academy of Dance in 1969 when he formed Illinois Foundation for the Dance and became a board member for the American Ballet Theater. In 1971, the Foundation launched an Extension Division to provide ballet training, soliciting teachers from current and retired faculty at the University of Illinois. Despite his initial plans to locate the school in the Chicago metropolitan area, the Academy ultimately opened in Urbana-Champaign, which was experiencing a cultural explosion during the late 1960s and early 1970s. At this time there were few institutions in America that provided quality ballet training for young dancers, and the new Urbana-Champaign residential dance academy generated great interest across the country. During the Academy's first auditions in the spring of 1972, nearly 250 students auditioned for entry into the school from major cities around the nation.
With a total of 63 students, the National Academy of Dance opened in the fall of 1972, functioning as a charter school that offered academic courses and a high school degree through the University of Illinois High School. In 1974, after two years of high enrollment, the Academy expanded by adding a music program to its curriculum. As a result the school changed its name to The National Academy of Arts (NAA) with the two performance disciplines designated within the school as the National Academy of Music (NAM) and National Academy of Dance (NAD). In addition to offering high school degrees with specializations in music and dance, the Academy later considered offering humanities degrees for students focusing on technical theater and production but this new academic concentration was never implemented.
In 1975, a company of student dancers formed an apprentice semi-professional dance company called the National Academy Ballet. A year later the company evolved into a professional company and changed its name to the National Ballet of Illinois (NBI) - a move that was considered by some Academy faculty and supporters to be controversial. Also beginning with the 1975-1976 school year NAA also offered a purely academic-only program as part of its curriculum for non-NAD and NAM students who enrolled in Academy.
After student enrollement peaked in 1977, funding problems for both the Academy and its professional company became a serious issue which eventually forced the closure of the school in 1978. As a result five properties owned by the Academy were sold at auction to cover its debt, and the Academy eventually was able to reopen in 1982. However, after five more years of shrinking student enrollment and growing financial commitments the Academy was closed again in 1987.
During the height of its activity, the National Academy of Arts maintained several buildings in the Urbana-Champaign area including their central facility, the Inman Hotel in downtown Champaign. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, 230 students graduated from the Academy and found careers in such venues as Broadway, at the River North Dance Theatre, the Ballet Tucson, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra. A reunion of past graduates of the Academy took place in Champaign, Illinois on July 17th and 18th, 2015.
This Collection is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Gift.
See Also: The National Academy of Arts Collection, 12/13/50.
Organized into two series: Series 1, Administrative and Production Records, 1969-2015, and Series 2, Photographs and Memorabilia, 1967-1983. Each series is arranged first by subject and then chronologically therein.
Consists of financial records, meeting minutes, news clippings, correspondence, performance programs, photographs, and memorabilia documenting the opening, operation, management, curriculum, faculty, student life, and closures of The National Academy of Dance and its later iteration as the National Academy of Arts. Also contains materials related to a reunion of Academy students that took place in 2015.
Consists of meeting minutes, correspondence, reports, contracts, publicity materials, scrapbooks, and production records documenting the management and operation of the National Academy of Dance as well as student, faculty, and staff life. The series is organized in four subseries: Sub-series 1, Operational Records, Sub-series 2, Student and Faculty Records, Sub-series 3, Publicity Materials, and Sub-series 4, Production Materials.
Contains course descriptions, class schedules, curriculum plans
Contains organizational charts, statement of historical development, goals and functions, budgets, student and faculty-staff statistics, facilities photographs, student photographs, promotional pamphlet, quotes from students and faculty-staff, correspondence, and news clippings relating to the Academy. Though some materials in this scrapbook pertain to other series, the entire scrapbook in housed here in Series 1 to maintain its integrity.
Contains appointment annoucments, news clippings, personal correspondence and biographies
Contains publicity materials, correspondence, news clippings, employee contract
Contains news clippings
Contains photographs, correspondence, and news clippings
Contains appointment annoucements
Contains news clippings
Contains news clippings
Contains publicity materials
Contains correspondence and news clippings
Includes National Academy of Arts 1975 and 1976/1977 yearbooks
Contains reunion programs, alumni statements, news clippings
Contains graduation programs for 1973-1978, 1983, 1985
Contains booklets for National Academy of Dance, National Academy of Arts, National Academy of Music, and the Illinois Foundation for the Dance
Contains booklets for National Academy of Arts
Contains reports, programs, and pamphlets relating to the arts, but not produced by the National Academy of the Arts
Contains On Pointe the newsletter for the Illinois Foundation for the Dance, as well as Foundation publicity correspondence
Contains news clippings
Articles and news clippings related to National Academy of Dance facilities primarily from 1972-1985, with additional 2015 materials about old facilities.
Contains news clippings and newsletters
Contains news clippings, press releases
Includes photographs
Contains articles and reviews
Contains news clippings concerning student life, performances, facilities and funding, backing ground and beginnings of second Academy, obituraries.
Contains news clippings concerning performances, faculty, and the Academy in general.
Contains National Academy of Arts May 1983 materials
Contains National Academy of Arts materials - Fall/Winter 1985.
Contains National Academy of Arts December 1985 production book; includes correspondence. See Oversize Portfolio Case 1 for two stage lighting maps related to these materials.
Consists of photographs and textiles documenting student life, rehearsals, and performances of the Academy between 1967 and 1983. Additional photographs are located in Series 1, Sub-Series 1 (Box 2, Folder 1).
Contains ballet performance photographs from National Academy of Arts and Nationla Ballet of Illinois.
Contains photographs detailing campus life, rehearsals and performances of the Academy as well as the National Ballet of Illinois; also includes some portraits. Some photographs have descriptions (names, dates) written on the back.
Contains photographs detailing student life, facilities, students. Includes portraits with names.
Accession number 2015.121351.002 One heavily-used satin pink pointe ballet shoe with pink ribbon laces. On the outer fabric of the shoe, there are notes and autographs written in black pen.
Contains framed embroidery designed and executed by Elsa Dunn. Creme background with blue National Academy of Arts logo and lettering.
Accession number 2015.121351.003. Light blue t-shirt, heavily stained, with black script reading "National Academy of Arts."