You're the right school for someone who hasn't found you yet.
Ballet.ie lists 228 ballet schools across all 32 counties, and we started most of those pages ourselves from whatever was public, so that anyone looking had somewhere to begin. Claiming yours is free, takes about two minutes, and puts what people see in your hands.
There's a school for everyone. The hard part is telling which one
Ballet.ie started with a four-year-old who wanted to try ballet, and a class that didn't last. Every other school nearby seemed too serious, or too far, or too much commitment for a child who might change her mind by half-term. The right one probably existed. What didn't exist was anywhere that answered the questions that actually decide it: is she old enough, does it matter that she's never danced, is there a trial before we commit to a term, does she need a uniform before the first class, do I stay with her or leave her at the door, am I allowed to watch.
That's the honest position across the country. Somewhere there's the gentle Saturday class for a child who isn't sure yet, and the school that takes exams seriously and gets students through their vocational grades, and the adult beginners' class at 7pm, and the Silver Swans class for people over 55, and the school running adaptive classes. Every one of them is right for somebody.
What's missing is somewhere those answers already are, so the right person recognises the right school without having to ask first. You don't need to be the school for everyone. You need to be easy to recognise by the people you're already right for.
What looking for a class usually involves
A Google search. Then a Facebook page whose last post was in 2023. Then an Instagram account with no timetable on it. Then a school website with a PDF from last September. Four tabs open, no clear answer, and no record of which schools have already been ruled out.
Then something else needs doing and the search stops. A week later it starts again from nothing, because none of it was written down anywhere worth going back to. That's where most people give up, and it's rarely because they stopped wanting the class.
Ballet.ie is one address, and not a hard one to remember. Search by school name or by town, or use the near me button and see every school close by at once, sorted by distance, with the ages and styles each one teaches. Nothing to trawl through, and nothing to start over tomorrow, because it's all still in the same place.
What that's worth to you is straightforward enough. You're on the list at the moment someone is actually comparing, and you're still on it when they come back to it.
Who's looking for you
Three quite different people arrive at a listing, and each has one question that has to be answered before they get in touch. It isn't the same question, which is the part most directories get wrong.
A parent whose child is starting out
She's doing the school run at 3:30 with two children and a job. She isn't browsing, she's working out whether Tuesday at 4 or Saturday at 10 can actually happen. If your class times and your location aren't visible, she can't tell, so she doesn't ask.
A parent whose child is already training
A parent whose child is working through Grade 5 isn't looking for a beginners' class nearby. She wants to know which board you teach, how far up the grades you go, whether you'd take a transfer mid-syllabus, and whether there's a vocational path after that. Those answers are what put you on her list.
An adult who wants to start, or start again
Of the schools listed here, 89 teach adults, and on your own they are genuinely hard to find. Someone who danced as a child and wants to go back, or who has never tried, would otherwise open one school website after another looking for two things: do you take adults, and is there room in the class. Nobody does that for long. Listed together, with the adult classes marked, she can see all 89 at once and choose the one that suits her week.
All three are asking the same thing underneath: can I tell, before I get in touch, whether this is the right school for me? When the answer is on the page, the people who aren't a fit move on quietly, and the ones who are a fit arrive already knowing it.
What we could fill in, and what we couldn't
We could usually find your name, your county and a way of contacting you. What we often couldn't find is the detail people actually decide on: which exam board you teach, the ages you take, whether you run an adult class, whether you're still teaching at the same address.
That isn't a comment on your website. It's that the answer wasn't in a form we could copy across accurately, and we would rather leave a gap than guess and put something wrong on your page.
Then there's the set of things we could never have found anywhere. Whether a beginner can join mid-term. Whether there's a uniform to buy before the first class, or whether leggings are fine to start. Whether parents stay or leave them at the door. Whether you can watch, and if not, why not. Those are the questions people are too shy to ask and too unsure to commit without, and only you can answer them. They belong in your description, in your words.
Once the listing is yours, it carries the things people are comparing on:
- Every venue you teach in, not just the main one
- Dance styles and exam boards, so RAD, ISTD, IDTA or your own syllabus is visible and filterable
- Age groups, including whether you welcome adults and absolute beginners
- Trial classes and private tuition, if you offer them
- Your own description, in your words rather than ours
- Contact details that are current, so the people who are a fit actually reach you
What claiming involves
Your name, your email, your role, and a tick to confirm you're authorised to represent the school. That's the form.
If you use the email already on your listing, or one on your school's own domain, you're approved on the spot and can start editing straight away. If you use a different address, one of us reads it, usually the same day.
There's no password to choose. There's no card, no trial that turns into a charge, and nothing you have to buy, now or later. A free listing is free permanently, and that isn't an introductory offer.
When you're ready: your timetable, and who has room
There's one question a free listing can't answer, and it's the one that turns interest into an enquiry: is there a place, in a particular class, right now.
An Enhanced Profile, €99 a year, puts your full timetable on your listing. A parent filters it by her child's age and by day. An adult can find your evening classes without asking. And every class shows whether it has places or a waiting list, so the enquiries that reach your inbox already name the class they're about.
You mark a class full or open again the moment it changes, at 11pm on a Sunday if that's when you know. Short on time? Send us your timetable and we'll put it in for you.
Search for your school by name or town. If it's there, the claim form is one click from the result. If it isn't listed yet, the same page will add it.
Ballet.ie is Ireland's independent ballet directory, covering 228 schools across all 32 counties. Listings are free and always will be. Not affiliated with any exam board, school or dance organisation.