About Us
ADAPT is an acronym which stands for: “Associated Dance Arts for Professional Teachers”.
ADAPT is a certified “dance syllabus” offering yearly examinations in the dance disciplines of Tap, Jazz, and Ballet.
ADAPT represents an elite group of dance teachers who follow the ADAPT Syllabus and enter their students in the yearly examination process.
ADAPT dance teachers are leaders in quality dance training. They teach the love of dance and movement not only to the elite student, but to the recreational dancer as well.
ADAPT techniques and the ADAPT Syllabus System is taught by over 175 Dance Studios both across Canada and Internationally.
ADAPT supports “T.T.S.” (Teacher’s Training School) and congratulates all the dance teachers who have successfully graduated and become recognized as “ADAPT Certified Teachers”.
ADAPT is proud of all ADAPT Teachers who work so professionally to maintain the highest standard of dance training excellence this country has to offer.
ADAPT has the power to make you a better dance teacher and is the best “teaching tool” a dance teacher could have!
Brian & Faye Foley
ADAPT Founders
bfoley@adaptsyllabus.com
Andrea & Ryan Foley
Directors of Administration & Marketing
andrea@adaptsyllabus.com
Dance Teaching System
In the summer of 1979, Brian Foley, a well known Canadian choreographer, director and dance teacher, along with his wife Faye Foley, created a dance teacher’s guideline for “tap” & “jazz”.
The Foleys presented the dance guideline to a small group of dance studio teachers attending one of the annual Brian Foley Summer Schools for tap and jazz dancing. These teachers then taught the curriculum in their own studios for the following dance year. The teachers found the material innovative and challenging, yet fun and inspiring for their students as well as themselves. The ADAPT Syllabus was born!
In the fall of 1980, Brian and Faye, (Mr. and Mrs. Foley) were invited by teachers of two separate studios to evaluate their students who were working on the new and exciting material. These visits created an unforgettable dance experience for both students and their teachers. The ADAPT Examination process was born!
Dance Examinations
Dance teachers were excited to find a dance syllabus which helped create a strong, solid technical foundation, along with artistic expression. An up-to-date, current syllabus enhancing the highest standards of jazz and tap dance excellence in the dance teaching industry. ADAPT allowed students to better prepare if they were interested in joining the dance profession. Dance teachers quickly grew to love ADAPT. They were proud of the excellent standard of dance training ADAPT helped them to create.
In 1991, the Foleys were invited to visit Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), Russia, to choreograph and direct a new review for the Leningrad State Music Hall. After visiting Russia five times over a three year period, they decided to bring two professional Russian dancers (Larissa Kouznetsova and Vladimir Iablakov) to Canada to help create a Ballet syllabus to enhance their Tap & Jazz Syllabus.
The ADAPT Syllabus now has a certified Ballet system based on the techniques of the world famous ballet teacher Agrippina Vaganova. It is based on the curriculum currently taught at the Vaganova Choreographic Institute of the Kirov Ballet.
Dance Certification
ADAPT proudly celebrates over four decades and is a fully certified dance examination program and is recognized by the Board Of Education in some Canadian Provinces as an External Credit opportunity allowing high school credits in Jazz and Tap dance.
Introduced in 2002, ADAPT also conducts a “Teachers Training School” program (T.T.S.) for interested dance teachers to become ADAPT Certified as well as an Assistant Teachers Training Program, introduced in the summer of 2014.
And we have grown. From five Canadian dance studios in 1980 (teaching the ADAPT Syllabus) to over 175 dance studios across Canada and Internationally today. ADAPT is also in the USA, Hong Kong, Singapore and Jakarta Indonesia. And we are still growing!