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When I enter the famous Italian school Conti, in a smart building in Woking that has been home since 2022, the first thing that strikes me is silence. Where are the students dancing on the tables? Are you rehearsing for balcony events? Some are far away, it happened, rehearsing for a show, but the ones I see are busy with their phones in the corridors, like all the other teenagers.
Life has changed at Italia Conti since its early days. The school celebrates its 115th anniversary this year. It was founded in London in 1911 by the English artist Italia Conti to train a group of children appearing in the play “Where the Rainbow Ends” at the Savoy Theatre. Noël Coward was one of the young singers. By the 1930s, the school was teaching voice acting, acting, singing, fencing and dancing (ballroom, operatic, Greek and stage dancing).
Today, it’s commercial dancing, aerialist skills and getting advice on your social media presence. There have been many changes in the past decade. The financial crisis of Covid has forced the closure in 2021 of the 11-16 year old junior school, the alma mater of Bonnie Langford, Louise Redknapp and Martine McCutcheon. (They’re looking at how to restore it, “but it’s a 10-year plan, not a two-year plan” as CEO Hayley Newton-Jarvis says.)
The small Italian school Conti was not the only one closed. Redroofs Theater School in Maidenhead stopped offering its full-time courses, and Barbara Speake’s school in Acton closed. When classes were suspended or went online due to Covid, enough parents stopped paying fees that schools couldn’t survive. In the public sector, Liverpool Pay has announced it is closing its primary and secondary schools at the end of this summer (its sixth form and degree courses, which are run separately, remain open).
Italy Conti alumna Claire Sweeney, who currently stars in the musical Annie, tells me she just signed a petition to save Lipa. “I like stage schools,” he says, especially for “kids who don’t do well academically, to find their type and get the best education”. And especially now there is less talent in schools since the Stem curriculum changed.
It’s not that there aren’t other ways to work, says Sweeney. “Now you can sit in your room, make recordings and get records. There’s Britain’s Got Talent, YouTube.” But to have a stable career, you need to develop your skills. “In theater, if you can’t do that you’re going to get noticed, you don’t last long.” Sweeney learned his singing skills in clubs from the age of 14, but a two-year sponsorship to send him to Italia Conti took him to the next level. Among the frequent reports that Fewer workers are entering the workforceItalia Conti marks its anniversary with the launch of new bursaries for low-income students.
The school now enrolls 16 students in dance and music, and 18 in acting. It has combined its three previous premises into one high-end building, with recording studios, a wellness center and a wardrobe department full of casual clothes (they get their make-up from Strictly). It’s on the edge of a shopping mall in Woking, with big windows inspired by New York’s Juilliard school, so you can see legs in tight ballet flats doing big beats when you step out of Big Shoes.
When I go into the studios, I watch the musicians perform tongue-in-cheek warm-ups (“Thirty, loving and prosperous!”), and dance breaks from Everything Goes On. “I know we’re fighting for dear life but our faces shouldn’t show that!” warns the teacher. I see theater students being told to “Investigate him a little and let’s make a mistake” in Macbeth, and get advice against “doing a mediocre play” in Chekhov.
The teaching style has changed over the years, especially in sports, said Harriet Whitbread, the school’s head of sports. He said: “In the past, people used to insult each other, they used to tell you that you were useless. “In the past, they used to knock you down, and when they put you back together, you were lucky.” Now we have the responsibility to make sure that the young people who are going through this course stay healthy, and that they are strong and resilient when they leave.”
Courage is a word that comes up again and again. It’s important in a job where rejection is part of the game. So how do you build? “Is resilience built by students being challenged and given obstacles and obstacles all the time?” asks Michael Vickers, deputy director of theater and dance. Or does courage develop in good times when you are supported and secure in your studies?” He leans towards the end.
Newton-Jarvis is also thinking about resilience. He said: “I feel that mental illness is worse than it was when we were studying. “There is a lot of anxiety.” He has seen students unable to cope with part-time jobs and studies and, of course, costs are rising. The school has its own food bank.
Newton-Jarvis said: “One of the most difficult things to teach is what will happen there. When he was a student here, the teachers had the same expectations as in the professional world, he said. Now, the feeling is more “I’m paying to be part of the education”, and the feedback of the students is very important. He said: “The education is not as strong as it used to be. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. The concern is how well prepared they are for the real world. It’s like their expectations are too high for them to understand, which always worries me because when they leave, I always feel they’re so scared.”
The students aren’t finding the moves easy in Lawrence Parsons’ commercial dance class. She quickly swaps her ballet shoes for her heels as Parsons leads with a powerful energy, expecting quick learning and a lot of enthusiasm. “Style. Detail. Power. Performance.” That’s what will get you a job, he tells you his charges.
Many lessons in physical activity, dance and music in particular, are linked repeatedly – something Newton-Jarvis says students are finding difficult, which they attribute to mobile phones. Not just addictive behavior but addictive dopamine, instant gratification. He said: “It’s as if their brains can’t cope with repeating what they have to do.”
But, he admits, his students are just following the world they have entered. They’re going to public service, they’re going to sell themselves, they’re going to need to have a social network – people get jobs that way. Some students are already making money from TikTok.
Sophia Oram, 19, a third-year theater student, is already preparing her meal. He tells me that he uploads dances on TikTok and uses Insta to act. But he is very committed to graft, too. He wants to go into film and TV but he chose to come to Italia Conti at 16. “I wanted the education of musical theater, I wanted the discipline that comes from it.” He has full government Dancing and Drama Award support: “Otherwise I probably wouldn’t have come.”
On the big question of technology, AI, Newton-Jarvis says, of course, the school is always thinking about how new technology can affect students, but they can’t think that it will replace a person. “There’s nothing like the risk of getting lost!” But Mr Vickers says his musician friends are concerned he could be replaced on the set. “Right now it still needs a lot of work to make AI human-like, so humans are cheap. But we can see this change in the next five years.”
The students I talk to are scared about their future, but mostly they are excited. Happy to be here, following their passions. They are not satisfied with the potential of youth and the desire to make their dreams come true, like all generations before. Oram said: “It won’t just be given to you, but if you really fight for what you want and put in the work to achieve your goals, you will succeed.”
