TWO DECADES OF DANCE: American Repertory Ballet’s artistic director Douglas Martin works with former Rider University student Courtney Schumacher, who graduated in 2013. (Photo by George Jones)

Ballet students in search of a college education often have a hard time finding a school that will allow them to continue serious study of the rigorous technique while providing them with an academic education. Many universities that offer dance major programs are focused more on contemporary styles than classical ballet.

But Rider University has a different approach. The Lawrenceville campus partners with the Princeton Ballet School to offer advanced classes and a strong connection with the school — and its affiliated American Repertory Ballet (ARB) company — to students majoring in dance. That relationship will be honored on Saturday, March 21 when ARB holds its 30th annual gala performance and reception at Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick. Rider will receive the 2015 Audree Estey Award for Excellence in Dance Education (Estey was the founder in 1954 of the ballet company, then called Princeton Ballet Society).

“This is an amazing partnership,” said Vanessa Logan, who last August came from the Boston Ballet to become ARB’s executive director. “We are able to share our teachers and our dancers with Rider’s students, and they provide us with a space to perform. It’s wonderful to be connected to such a great institution. It was a long time coming.”

The arrangement allows some 48 Rider students not only to take classes at Princeton Ballet School’s spacious studios at Princeton Shopping Center, but also to explore internships with the school, ballet company, and other arts organizations in the area. The students perform with the Rider Dance Ensemble on the Lawrenceville campus, with ARB in its “Nutcracker,” and with ARB’s Ballet Workshop, part of Princeton Ballet School’s pre-professional training program. Many pursue teaching and administrative dance careers, some become professional performers, and others go on to graduate study in such fields as dance therapy.

“It’s pretty amazing,” said Lisa de Ravel, the ballet school’s dean of students and a former dancer with ARB. “Rider is really unique because of the way the program is structured. Allowing the students to do a lot of their work on campus but then take ballet with us here, at our extraordinary facility with our great faculty, is very special and makes it a kind of performance model. They get the best of both worlds.”

Ms. de Ravel joined ARB in 1988 and started teaching early in her career. After retirement from dancing, she started ARB’s “Plus” program, which is a conservatory within the school for dancers heading toward a professional career. After her dancing days ended, she went to Rutgers University and earned a degree in child and adolescent development. “As dean of students I’m responsible for things like mentoring and advising our high schoolers in the more intense program, and working with moms,” she said.

Programs similar to the Rider/ARB partnership are starting to take hold in other areas of the country. Ms. de Ravel cited the Boston Ballet’s arrangement with Northeastern University as an example. In her 26 years with ARB, Ms. de Ravel has witnessed the Rider program’s success, much of which she credits to the dance department chair, Professor Kim Chandler Vaccaro. “I’ve had the opportunity to see these extraordinary young people come through the program and then do great things,” she said. “One is now a faculty member with us.”

The March 21 gala celebration is not only honoring Rider, but also those who have helped with 30 years of gala leadership. Ms. de Ravel, who is also ARB’s alumni relations coordinator, has been busy interviewing past participants for a film whose trailer will be shown at the event. “I like to celebrate not only those who have gone on to professional dance careers, like Sean Mahoney, who is now with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, but also people who have worked for decades in this organization. How do you keep that feeling as you grow? That’s something that Audree Estey knew. She had a pulse on that, from the beginning. And that’s what we’re celebrating.”