AADP was founded in 1997 by its director, Brooke Desnoës, former student of Dame Sonia Aorva and dancer with the Scottish Ballet, then under the direction of Alexander Bennett.

It was after a visit to France, in the beginning of the 1980s, that the idea of creating a dance school, with a philosophy different from that which was traditionally given to young French dancers came to Mrs. Desnoës.  This idea for a new dance school finally took form in 1997, after a three-year stint in Washington D.C. where she acquired a prodigious body of knowledge under the tutelage of Mary Day, from the prestigious Washington School of Ballet.  In only a few years AADP has become, by its size and reputation, one of the largest private dance schools in Europe.  It is thanks to the generous support of Gregory and Regina Annenberg Weingarten and The Annenberg Foundation that AADP could move to its current studios at 100 rue du Cherche Midi in September 2006.  Since its foundation, AADP has allowed young dancers to realize their dreams, thereby fulfilling the principal goal of its founder.