The Ballet School, which today bears the name "Lujo Davičo", was founded on October 2, 1947 in Belgrade, as the first state ballet school in the then Yugoslavia. It was created by integrating the Ballet Department at the Academy of Music and the ballet studio of the Opera of the National Theater, with the aim of creating a state institution for the education of dancers and renewing the ballet ensemble of the Belgrade Theater. The founder and director of the school from 1947-1949 was Ani Radošević (1915 - 2004), a ballerina, choreographer, opera director, and the then organizational head of the ballet studio of the Opera of the National Theater. The first teachers were ballet pedagogues and eminent artists: Nina Kirsanova, prima ballerina, Milorad Mile Jovanović, an excellent pedagogue (compiler of the first curriculum and program of the School), Maga Magazinović (among the first in Europe to open a school for rhythm and plastic arts), Jelena Weiss, Smilja Mojić, Sima Laketić, Olga Jakovljević, Danica Živanović, Vjera Štambuk, as well as musical associates Milan Zamurović and Maržana Popović.

In private, pre-war ballet schools in Belgrade, only one subject was taught, classical ballet. Nina Kirsanova and Milorad Jovanović also had their own private schools. A student of Nina Kirsanova, prima ballerina of the Belgrade Ballet, soloist in the Anna Pavlova troupe, was Milorad Mišković, soloist of the National Theater ballet, star of Paris and the world stage. Milorad Jovanović, in addition to his private ballet school, also led the ballet department at the Academy of Music. With the opening of the Ballet School, their students came to the School along with the teachers.

The first teachers, as well as the first students of the State Ballet School, came from these studios. Many of them are members or soloists of the Ballet, all of them practice at the School, and among them are the first dancers Ruth Parnell and Dimitrije Parlić. They were divided into classes according to their level of knowledge, and those who wanted to were allowed to finish school faster. According to Ana Radošević, the School soon produced a whole generation of talented young people who would form the core of the Belgrade ballet for years to come: Ruth Parnell, Katarina Obradović, Milica Jovanović, Jovanka Bjegojević, Bojana Perić, Dušan Trninić, Gradimir Hadžislavković, and Duška Sifnios and Ljubinka Dobrijević would shine in Maurice Béjart's troupe.

The School's premises were located not far from the National Theatre at 6 Braće Jugovića Street, in the building that today houses the Balkan Cinema. The School's work was organized according to the model of the Russian six-year ballet school, according to a program for advanced students. According to this program, professional dance subjects (classical ballet, classical support, historical dances, rhythmics, piano) were studied for all six years, and general education subjects only in the sixth grade. The division into lower (grades I to IV) and high school (grades V and VI) was only formal.

Founded as the State Ballet School in 1947, in 1948 it was called the High Ballet School, in which since 1950 education has been extended to eight years (four lower grades and four high school grades) without general education classes, so students attend regular high schools in parallel. It was not until 1960 that general education subjects were reintroduced, initially organized together with the Stanković Music School, so that from then on the Ballet School provided comprehensive secondary education. That same year the School changed its name and became the Lujo Davičo Ballet School.

During this period, the School's director was Zorka Macura, and the leading teaching staff of acting subjects were: Jelena Hela Burić, Gordana Kalanović, Ksenija Kecojević (School director from 1975 to 1996), Dušanka Komendić, Stevan Žunac, Mira Nikolić Kostić, Anđelka Jablan, and musical associate Milica Simić. There is no higher education institution in the country that would educate teaching staff for acting subjects, so the School's management is striving to provide specializations at higher and higher ballet schools in Leningrad and Moscow. It manages to provide scholarships for professional development for a number of teachers in the subjects: classical ballet, stage folk and historical ballroom dancing. The stay of eminent experts in the National Theatre ballet and seminars on the methodology of acting subjects that they hold for the school's teachers were common practice. Ballet teacher Abdurakhman Kumisnikova, who worked at the Ballet School for more than a year and studied classical ballet for all 8 years of study, had the most significant influence on the work of the School. Through lectures, exercises with teachers and monitoring their work with students in the ballet hall, he raised the teaching of classical ballet at the School to a much higher level. The School is home to numerous Russian teachers: Baltachaya, Olga Jordan, Svetlana Afanasyeva. Ballet artists visit it: Maya Plisetskaya, Maurice Liepa, Vladimir Tikhonov, Natalia Bessmertnova... Monitoring major international ballet competitions, primarily in Moscow and Varna, and later in Lausanne, was an important form of professional development for our teachers.

From the first years of the School's work, the question of opening an Academy for Ballet Teachers has been raised. The Department of Ballet Pedagogy existed for a time at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts and was completed by a group of teachers from the School. A two-year study with a very extensive plan and program of work.

Ballet School "Lujo Davičo" is an art school for primary and secondary dance education. Schooling lasts eight years and includes primary ballet school (four years), which students attend in parallel with compulsory primary school, and secondary ballet school (four years), which is attended by students who have a professional orientation to dance and which, in addition to professional dance subjects, also includes general education subjects.

1) Primary ballet education is implemented through the classical ballet department in Belgrade and separate departments in Kragujevac and Čačak.

2) Secondary ballet education includes educational profiles:
classical ballet dancer,
contemporary dance dancer and
folk dance dancer.
The school was founded as a classical ballet school modeled on the Russian ballet school and based on the principles of classical ballet methodology of pedagogue Agrippina Vaganova. Until 1988, this direction was the only one. At that time, on the initiative of the Ensemble "Kolo", a folklore department was founded, which today bears the name of the Folk Dance Department. Amendments and supplements to the Curriculum for Secondary Ballet Education from 2003 created the conditions for the formation and operation of the Contemporary Dance Department. This met the need of a large number of students for education in this dance form.

The secondary school provides a comprehensive education, including professional dance subjects and general education subjects. General education is identical for all three educational profiles and is conducted in two classes of each grade.

Elementary and secondary ballet school classes are organized in Belgrade in:

the main building, ul. Knez Miletina 8 and
the premises of the Sports Gymnasium, ul. Herceg Stjepana 7.
Elementary ballet school classes are also organized in separate departments in:

1) Kragujevac - Center for the Cultivation of Traditional Culture "Abrašević"

2) Čačak - House of Culture, http://www.domkulturecacak.org/edukacija