Degas' work is an odd combination of academic and Impressionist strategies. His draftsmanship tended to be rigorous, almost photorealistic -- he often worked from photographs -- and he shared the academic's preoccupation with the dramatic, expressive possibilities of space. At the same time his surfaces shimmered with a life of their own, in the Impressionist way, creating a powerful counter tension.
The image above is very unusual. The design offers a bold recession of spaces, in three dramatic stages, while the treatment of the surface flattens it all out again, as in a Japanese print, also a strong influence on Degas' style.
I can never feel comfortable calling Degas an Impressionist, but he wasn't an academic, either. He was just Degas.