Before 1945 the training and educational system for ballet functioned only sporadically, on the basis of the private activities of individual artistes. The most important figures in the field include Achille Viscusi, who acted in the Slovak National Theatre, and Ella Fuchsova-Lehotska, later followed in the private sector by the Russian Maximilian Froman. The Ella Fuchsova-Lehotska School trained the first post-war generation of Slovak dancers, including Augusta Starostova, Gertruda Mucksteinova, Alica Hoppeova, Titus Pomsar, Peter Rapos and Jarmila Mansingrova.
After 1945 several training and educational institutions were established in response to the need for professional dance artistes.
In 1949 a Dance Department was established at the Bratislava Conservatory, offering four-year and, after 1959, five-year study programmes.
Later, in 1975, foundations were laid for the present-day Eva Jaczova Dance Conservatory (established in 1992 and bearing the name since 2000), initially as the Music and Dance School (until 1979) with an eight-year study programme, a development which led to the gradual cessation of the Dance Department at the Bratislava Conservatory. The dance teacher Eva Jaczova played an important role in establishing both types of the dance school.
Dance departments were established in 1974 within the Košice Conservatory on the initiative of the married couple Halasz (which proved to be of great benefit to the Ballet Ensemble of the State Theatre Košice) and in 1994 also in Banská Bystrica Conservatory under the leadership of Zuzana Hajkova. However, the training programmes of these schools still do not fully cover the needs of professional performers.
After 1989 further conservatories were established – the State Conservatory (Košice) and private ones (Košice, Liptovský Hrádok, Nitra, Topoľčany – Prešov, Trnava, Zvolen).
Dance study programmes have since 1960 been covered by Folk Schools of Art, recently known as Private Primary Art Schools. The preparation of students begins practically as early as in their kindergarden years and finishes when they finish studying at primary school.
Since 1951 the Department of Dance has existed within the Academy of Performing Arts (VŠMU) in Bratislava, which provides a university-level study programme for professional dance artistes, including dancers, choreographers and teachers of classical, folk and modern dance as well as dance theorists, historians and critics.
Apart from the afore-mentioned dance educators, other significant names should also be mentioned, including Anna Jelinkova, Magdalena Panovová, Zlatica Vincentová, Olga Markovicova, Jozef Zajko, Danica Pilzova, Andrej Halasz, Csaba Szekeres and Zuzana Hajková teaching at the conservatories, as well as Galina Basova, Stefan Toth, Ivo Vana Psota, Jan Reimoser, Stanislav Remar, Rudolf Macharovsky, Rudolf Braun, Lubomir Pancev, Dorotea Tothová, Karol Toth, M. Tothová-Halaszova, Stefan Nosal and later Marcela Grecmanova, Dagmar Hubova, Emil T. Bartko, Irina Ciernikova and Vladimir Marusin teaching at VŠMU.