The roots of the Academy of American Ballet trace to Julia Dugan’s time at Stanford. As a student in 1993, Julia founded the Cardinal Ballet, Stanford’s first ballet company. After directing the company for six years, Julia saw a need to introduce children into the company’s annual Nutcracker performance to complete Act I. That need, along with a lifelong goal of developing new thinking in ballet training, led to the founding of the Academy of American Ballet in 1999.

Now, over 15 years later, the Academy of American Ballet trains well over 100 dancers every year and is the leading Peninsula area ballet school that focuses on developing artistry and sound technique based on anatomical principles in harmony with a dancers body.