The BAI Performing Arts Training Center was created in 1996.[1][5] Since then, more than two thousand students have passed through its studies, courses, and training in interpretation, dance, and circus arts.[6][2][7][8]
The BAI Performing Arts Training Center offers advanced studies in dramatic art and interpretation in four years, with the possibility of specializing in stage direction.[9] In addition to higher studies, it also offers theater, script and directing studies.[10] The school offers early training in performing arts (8–12 years), youth training (12–16 years), advanced youth training (16–18 years) and higher professional university training (+18 years).
In 2006, the BAI school opened an additional center in Bilbao, where it also offers training in performing arts. The BAI center also creates and promotes theatrical productions, both its own and those of others, in collaboration with different theaters such as the Barakaldo Theatre or the Arriaga Theatre.[11]
The current director of the BAI Stage Training Center is Fer Montoya,[12] actor and theater educator, also a professor at the Dantzerti Higher School of Dramatic Art and Dance.[13]
In 2004 BAI created the ACT Festival, the International Festival for Emerging Performing Artists. Its aim is to achieve recognition for the work of drama schools and theater training centers, and to exchange information, methods and experiences with colleagues from other countries.[16]
The ACT International Festival aims to promote international emerging artists who, with their innovative proposals, are defining the scene of the future. For about four days, the festival holds living arts, attending shows, courses, workshops or reflection sessions in Bilbao and Barakaldo.[17][18][19]