The North Star Dance Foundation maintains the North Star Ballet School, which offers a carefully graded training program providing an excellent environment for both the student with career aspirations and the student who seeks personal enrichment through dance. The School is designed to serve the dance education needs of Fairbanks and to provide a flow of well trained dancers into the North Star Ballet Company . The North Star Ballet School is the educational arm of the North Star Dance Foundation and serves the dance education needs of the Fairbanks community and as a preparatory school for the North Star Ballet Company. The program emphasizes a kinesthetic approach to movement and dance training through the understanding of anatomical principles and the dynamics of movement. Classes are offered for 32 weeks September through May with a special four week summer session in June.
Classes are small with emphasis on the growth of the individual in a supportive atmosphere.
The faculty, under the direction of Norman Shelburne, is professional and highly skilled. The School opened in 1987 with an enrollment of 40 students. In 1990 the School, in a cooperative effort with the Fairbanks Host Lions, moved into a new facility featuring two studios with sprung wood floors, dressing room space, a lounge area and administrative space. The School enrollment for the 1996-1997 academic year is approximately 120 students, including a satellite location at Eielson Air Force Base.