Teach Inspire Create Conference 2024: meet the Royal Opera & Ballet Design Challenge team

We are thrilled to announce our final speaker for our annual Teach Inspire Create Conference taking place this November: the Royal Opera and Ballet Design Challenge team!

The Royal Ballet and Opera Design Challenge is a national, skills-based design competition that gives students the chance to work to a brief inspired by a Royal Ballet and Opera production. Some of the world's most celebrated creators, artists, and technicians set the brief, judge the students’ work and host the winners at an exclusive ceremony at the Royal Opera House.

About the Royal Opera and Ballet Design Challenge team

Sandra Dartnell joined the Royal Ballet and Opera Schools team three years ago as Programme Manager of the Create & Design programme which includes the national Design Challenge. Previously Sandra created skills-based learning opportunities as part of the sector skills council for the creative and cultural industries. She will be joined for the keynote by the three Lead Artists for the Design Challenge: Ruth Paton, Thomas Guthrie and Emma Turland, who are practicing stage designer, opera director, graphic designer and work with senior members of the Royal Ballet and Opera - some of the world's most celebrated creators, artists, and technicians.

We reached out to Sandra to find out more about why the Royal Ballet and Opera thinks it is so important to provide young people with access to creative education, and what she and the Design Challenge team will be speaking about at the Conference!

Why do you think creative education is important for young people?

Creative education and the arts provide more than just an ability to sing or draw or dance – as the Cultural Learning Alliance’s ‘Arts in Schools Report’ says, the arts are “an essential tool in building a human society.”

A young person’s access to high quality arts education is vital to learning, skills development and wellbeing, and prepares them to thrive as active citizens, succeed in future work, and experience the joy the arts can bring. And, perhaps most importantly, creative education and the arts can teach young people about themselves – who they are, what they want to achieve, and what they really care about.

That is why for over 40 years the Royal Ballet and Opera’s learning programmes have pioneered creative education and access across the UK, bringing the magic of dancing, singing and design to young people, no matter who they are or where they come from.

We have a range of ways for schools and young people to experience the power of the arts with us. Our programmes work to make sure that creativity is available to as many young people as possible, using the passion and expertise we have for ballet and opera to fight for the availability of arts education.

As you will be speaking about the Royal Ballet and Opera Design Challenge at the Conference, can you explain a bit more about what this is?

Now in its 14th year, the Design Challenge is a course that aims to discover and nurture young talent, improve access to design jobs in the theatre and beyond, and enhance students' hands-on skills to help them meet their qualifications.

Covering the national art and design curriculum for Secondary, Further and Higher Education students, the Design Challenge gives young people aged 14+ the chance to work to a live brief set by a professional director, inspired by a Royal Ballet and Opera production. Each student has the option to complete a design in one of four categories: costume, set, marketing, and hair, wig and makeup. Annually students participate from across Levels 1-4 inclusive of SEND learners.

The Design Challenge is not only about helping students enhance their skills and finish their studies – it’s also about giving young people hands-on experience and greater access and pathways into creative education and artistic industries.

This access is seen not only through the free resources that students and teachers receive from us as part of the Design Challenge course, but at the end of the Challenge where the winners from each category are given the chance to spend a day with professional designers at the Royal Opera House.

Making connections, talking to world-class artists, and learning about career progression gives these students an invaluable opportunity to finish their studies and look to how they will define and develop their own design careers.

The Royal Ballet and Opera works with many schools encourage learning and exploring the ballet and opera. How do you integrate education into your artistic programs?

We are constantly looking at how the productions on our stages can be used to inspire the young people and communities we work with. This means that the focus for our learning programmes is about integrating the artistic programmes into the resources, training, events and experiences we develop for young people and educators. For example, each year the Design Challenge gives students a brief inspired by a Royal Ballet and Opera production, asking students to have their own interpretation of a work that we’ve had on stage. This means students are more likely to connect to and have a deeper understanding of the production, even if they had never seen a ballet or opera before.

Similarly, we use our Schools’ Matinee programme to invite thousands of students and teachers from across the country to our theatre to see a live production, many never having experienced opera or ballet. The preconceived ideas that these artforms are only a certain age or class of people is quickly pushed to the side when you hear thousands of children screaming, shouting and clapping with so much awe and enthusiasm having seen world-class artists, musicians and conductors perform on our stages. There is truly nothing like it.

Artistically, we ensure that there are spaces to discover and nurture new talent, including through our celebrated Jette Parker Artists Programme – where conductors, directors, singers and répétiteurs can audition for a two-year contract with us; our Youth Opera Programmes – where children aged 7 to 13 are given free music and drama training and the chance to perform on stage in our productions; and our Overture programme, where young musicians have the chance to be mentored by a member of the Royal Opera House’s Orchestra.

All these programmes are about creating new opportunities for people from different backgrounds and with different experiences to learn from and feel creatively supported by the Royal Ballet and Opera.

What advice would you give to young people who are facing obstacles in pursuing their creative dreams?

• Always be curious
• Remain playful
• Seek out ways to develop your own skills and artistry
• Document your process and identify your learnings
• Don’t be afraid to show how failures and mistakes have led to breakthroughs

Also, really interrogate the dream. There are many roles that are creative but not as obvious. Studios, workshops and stages need managers and technicians. Bringing an understanding of design process to other fields of creativity and production is a real asset. In the creative industries there are roles with skills shortages, meaning that entry level opportunities including apprenticeships exist.

The Royal Ballet and Opera is committed to equality and diversity in the arts. Can you tell us more about why it’s so important to the Royal Ballet and Opera to champion inclusivity and ensure diverse voices and backgrounds have representation in the arts?

At the Royal Ballet and Opera, we make world-class ballet and opera for everyone. We believe that diversity is about making sure we can attract and develop talented people who bring more, precisely because of their different backgrounds, experiences, cultures and outlooks.

We appreciate there is always more we can - and must - be doing to ensure the diversity of future artists and audiences alike. Everybody should have the opportunity to be creative, no matter who you are or where you are from.

In terms of our learning programmes, initiatives such as Chance to Dance and our Youth Opera Programmes widen participation in both our artforms.

Chance to Dance does this by creating lasting links between primary schools and local dance schools to encourage greater access to ballet through a more diverse talent pool. Running for over 30 years, the programme is now operating in 25 primary schools in 5 regions across the UK. Building on the success of Chance to Dance, a new Company – Chance to Dance Connect – was created as a young dance Company made up of 100% global majority heritage dancers.

Our Youth Opera Programme is a free initiative that gives children aged 7 to 13 from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to learn music and drama from professional artists and have the chance to perform in Royal Opera productions.

In terms of audiences, programmes like our Access Scheme, Young RBO Scheme, and our Cinema and Stream offers mean that our work can be enjoyed by everyone. Ensuring audiences feel seen in the arts we produce and are then able to enjoy our productions – whether that be either in our theatre, in their homes or in their local cinema – is incredibly important to us and is something we are continually striving to do artistically, and through our learning programmes.