Hungarian Dance Academy, 2011 Ballet art has a more than 200-year old past in Hungary. The year 1884 brought a major development: the Hungarian Royal Opera House was opened and became the home and heart of the Hungarian ballet art. Today Hungary is known to have several distinguished ballet ensembles, but Hungarian National Ballet, the ballet company of the Hungarian State Opera, well-known and acknowledged all over Europe, is still regarded the leading one among them. In Hungary, Dance artist training within the school system started just over sixty years ago. However, the achievements of the past fifty years are correlated with the Hungarian Dance Academy. The state-funded education of ballet students within an organized system began as early as 1937 at the Hungarian Royal Opera House which, in 1949, was supplemented by the Dance Artist School. In 1950 the State Ballet Institute was founded by unifying these two institutions. It has had its present name—The Hungarian Dance Academy—since 1990. In 2001 the theoretical education as well as the management moved. In 2002 twelve brand new ballet studios were also built there.