Over the years that the school grew more widely renown, the teaching system was constantly being evolved. According to St. Denis, Shawn attributed the most to this. He addressed incoming students with a 'diagnosis lesson', which would assess their current skills in order to assign them to a specific learning/class structure for their time at the Denishawn school. Shawn also was firm on his ideas of what was necessary for the learning curriculum. He addressed that ballet was an overall necessity for any dancer to move forward or thrive in their studies, which is a big reason why the Denishawn curriculum was largely based on ballet fundamentals.