Having performing arts in schools, taught by specialist teachers, not only ignites creativity but also fosters emotional intelligence, creating well-rounded individuals. Even in the more traditional academic subjects, studies have shown that children who participate in performing arts will have an improved outcome, shared Denise Hutton Gosney, Managing Director and Founder, Razzamataz Theatre Schools in an exclusive conversation with Sheeba Chauhan of Elets News Network (ENN). Edited excerpts:
In a world of theoretical books and monotonous learning, you are bringing fun while learning into the life of students. Let us know in detail about your organisation and various programmes.
Razzamataz Theatre Schools launched in 2000 and currently have 60 schools across the UK, teaching 10,000 children a week. We are a multi-award-winning franchise theatre school, which successfully appeared on BBC’s Dragons’ Den. We offer performing arts education to children and young people from the age of four to eighteen in our main school as well as classes for the pre-school age group and parent and baby classes.
- Razz Minis (age 4-5) – a fun and informative introduction to the world of performing arts.
- Razz Juniors (age 6-8) – vibrant and energetic dance, drama and singing classes covering all aspects of the performing arts.
- Razz Inters (age 9-11) – vibrant and energetic dance, drama and singing classes covering all aspects of the performing arts.
- Razz Seniors (age 12-18) – high-quality training in dance, drama and singing covering commercial genres and musical theatre.
- Razz Tots (age 2-3) and Tiny Tots (babies to 23 months) – parent/guardian assisted melody, imagination, and movement class.
- Razzamataz Project Intense – an exclusive class to support students who wish to take their training to a more advanced level, focusing on the technical skills of dance.
- Holiday schools – dance, drama, and singing together with learning more about the aspects of theatre including prop making, costume design, choreography, and many more.
Razzamataz was created with a simple dream, to make performing arts available to all young people. How is Razz theatre school bringing performing arts into the life of students? Is there any restriction to the age limit to learn the same?
Our teams of professional performing arts educators will teach the very latest trends in commercial performance and West End and Broadway musical theatre styles. We offer classes in dance, singing, and acting covering a wide range of popular genres including street dance, screen acting, pop singing, and classic musical theatre. Our teams of teachers are highly skilled and experienced, and we offer them regular one-to-one sessions to empower them to lead a class of students that are both experienced and those that are new to performing arts. We give teachers many resources, including the opportunity to complete the Training Academy and earn a Razzamataz teaching diploma. This gives them tools to understand how to bring out the best in every age group and how to deal with challenges such as a lack of confidence, shyness, and other developmental issues. Whether children come to us at the age of two or at the age of twelve, we can bring out their creative side through our fun and dynamic classes.
85 % of a child’s brain develops at an early age in their life. Your institutions have a lot of programmes for early childhood. How are these programmes helping children in excelling from others and how are you making these developments enjoyable while ensuring cognitive development?
Thanks to science, we now know how important these early years are. Through performing arts games and activities, the Razzamataz Early Years classes have been created to aid healthy development for early childhood. The classes have been designed in line with the UK Government’s Early Years Foundation Stage framework, which encourages literacy skills, social skills and problem-solving ability. Offering fun, interactive and imaginative classes to little ones, the content of these sessions helps young children connect, communicate and build community. The programmes have been developed to inspire children to see the world through imagination, senses, play and performing arts. The sessions are themed to provide new experiences and include all the areas that ignite little one’s imagination such as ‘jungle adventures’ ‘under the sea’ and ‘space travel.’ As well as all the benefits to the children, the adults can enjoy special bonding time with their child and meeting other parents and careers living locally over tea and coffee at the end of the class while the children play.
The world is escalating toward a more transformative educational setup. Do you think institutions like yours will escalate performing arts as a mainstream setup in the education segment worldwide?
Razzamataz is passionate about supporting schools worldwide to grow the next generation of confident, adaptable, collaborative and curious leaders. Performing arts is a life tool and stepping stone to a brighter future. Razzamataz helps young people and schools see the value of the Arts sitting next to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths. When performing arts is embedded into children’s lives, students can communicate effectively, negotiate, collaborate, become entrepreneurs and leaders. In the UK, we work with many schools offering workshops and classes and the feedback we receive is extremely positive. Having performing arts in schools, taught by specialist teachers, not only ignites creativity, but it also fosters emotional intelligence, creating well-rounded individuals. Even in the more traditional academic subjects, studies have shown that children who participate in performing arts will have an improved outcome. Forward-thinking schools must consider their performing arts programmes to create confident young people with the communication skills needed to succeed in the modern workforce.
World Education Summit 2023 in Dubai aims to unlock fresh strategies and foster new approaches to build a future-ready education ecosystem. How do you think such conferences help to uplift education standards at a global level?
The World Education Summit 2023 in Dubai is giving a platform to arts providers such as Razzamataz who can enhance education standards by showcasing our twenty-plus years of experience working with children and young people. At Razzamataz, we are on a mission to build self-belief in our students, inspiring the next generation through the arts to be better communicators with increased confidence leading to higher academic achievement. The benefits of performing arts are far reaching. Children gain a wealth of attributes by engaging in Razzamataz performing arts lessons. This is anything from increased confidence, collaboration skills, positive effects on a child’s academic learning and increased empathy. We give them a place where they can go to find community, have fun and express themselves in a safe and secure environment. With the Summit highlighting the many benefits, we believe this will change how schools view performing arts. Through performing arts providers such as Razzamataz, we can offer the tools and resources they need to improve education standards wherever they are based globally.
Up to 44% of college students reported having symptoms of depression and anxiety worldwide. Your institution is developing youth confidence and improving health and fitness whilst learning fantastic performing skills. Our readers want to know about your dynamic courses that are mitigating these challenges in the youth.?
Human beings thrive in communities, which is why so many of our students and their families have said they have transformed during their time at Razzamataz, because we are passionate about creating safe and happy spaces for young people to prosper. We work with thousands of young adults, leading to an enormous amount of experience and understanding about their challenges and how Razzamataz sessions improve their physical and mental health. In each Razzamataz school, we encourage Principals to develop special bonds with their students and their families. We encourage regular one to one with teachers and staff to talk about individual students to flag up any worries, we have special ‘Nights In’ to chat to students in an informal way about a variety of topics, we maintain excellent communication with families to keep up to date with new things in students’ lives and we enhance wellbeing through various activities, team building sessions and work on specific ways to build better mental health with specialist coaches. Students really do make lifelong friends with their Razzamataz classmates, which is encouraged through working together and collaborating through putting on shows and performances.
