Tring Park School for the Performing Arts is an independent co-educational school offering specialist courses in Dance, Commercial Music, Musical Theatre and Acting for 8–19 year olds. Originally known as the Arts Educational School, Tring Park, it was founded as the sister school of the Arts Educational School, London. In 2009 it became independent of the London school and was renamed Tring Park School for the Performing Arts.

Overview

Tring Park School for the Performing Arts is an independent, co-educational

boarding Boarding may refer to: *Boarding, used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals as in a: ** Boarding house **Boarding school *Boarding (horses) (also known as a livery yard, livery stable, or boarding stable), is a stable where ho ...

and day school for pupils aged 8–19 years. It comprises a preparatory school, lower school, secondary school and sixth form and at a professional level. It is a specialist provider of vocational training in the performing arts, with a syllabus that includes Dance, Acting, Commercial Music and Musical Theatre. Vocational studies are supported by a full academic syllabus from Prep to A-level. As one of the leading schools for the performing arts in the United Kingdom, it is one of only twenty-one schools selected to allocate Government funded

Dance and Drama Awards The Dance and Drama Awards are a scholarship scheme which subsidises professional vocational training at some of the leading performing arts schools in the United Kingdom. Established in 1998, the awards are funded and regulated by the British G ...

, a scholarship scheme established to subsidise the cost of professional dance and drama training for the most talented pupils at leading institutions.

History

The school was first founded in 1939 and was originally known as the Cone-Ripman School. It was formed as a result of a merger between the Cone School of Dancing founded in 1919 by Grace Cone, and the Ripman School founded in 1922 by Olive Ripman. The schools were initially in two parts, the Cone studio located above Lilly & Skinner's shoe shop on Oxford Street and the Ripman in Baker Street. Cone-Ripman School was then based in premises at Stratford Place in London, but following the outbreak of World War II, it was relocated to Tring in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

, using various rented buildings. In 1941, the school reopened in London, but a second school continued to operate in Tring. In 1945, the Rothschild Bank vacated the mansion at Tring Park, which had been its temporary base during the war, and the

Rothschild family The Rothschild family ( , ) is a wealthy Ashkenazi Jewish family originally from Frankfurt that rose to prominence with Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744–1812), a court factor to the German Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel in the Free City of F ...

permitted the school to use the premises on a permanent basis. Tring Park remains the school's sole campus to this day and in 1947, the school was renamed the Arts Educational School, Tring Park, with the London school becoming the Arts Educational School, London. In 1970, the school acquired the freehold of the mansion and grounds and began a redevelopment of the site, financed by the sale of unused land. The refurbished building was officially opened in 1976 by the

Duchess of Kent Duchess of Kent is the principal courtesy title used by the wife of the Duke of Kent. There have been four titles referring to Kent since the 18th century. The current duchess is Katharine, the wife of Prince Edward. He inherited the dukedom o ...

. The school was later extended in 1990, with the opening of the Markova Theatre by The Prince Edward. In 1993, the school purchased the former St Francis de Sales Convent for use as offsite boarding accommodation for senior pupils. A second house was purchased for use as boarding accommodation in 1994. Later in 1994, the Arts Educational Schools Trust decided that it was in the best interests of both the London and Tring schools, for them to be run separately. This led to the formation of the AES Tring Park School Trust, which acquired the school and is now solely responsible for its ongoing management. In 2009, to further identify the school as an independent institution, it changed its name to Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. The London school continues to operate, and is commonly known as

ArtsEd Arts Educational Schools, or ArtsEd, is an independent performing arts school based in Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow. Overview ArtsEd provides specialist vocational training at secondary, further and higher education level in musi ...

. For many years, the school's president was the renowned Prima Ballerina Assoluta, Dame Alicia Markova. After her death, Leopold David de Rothschild CBE became president and the vice presidents are Irek Mukhamedov

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

and

Howard Goodall Howard Lindsay Goodall (; born 26 May 1958) is an English composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programmes for television and radio, for which he has won many awards. In May 2008, he was na ...

CBE.

History of the mansion

The current Tring Park Mansion was built to a design of Sir Christopher Wren in 1685, for Sir Henry Guy. Sir William Gore, Lord Mayor of London, bought the house in 1705 and it remained in his family for two subsequent generations. in 1786, it was sold to Sir Drummond Smith, a London banker, who refurbished the interior in Georgian style and remodelled the park in the fashion made popular by "Capability" Brown. William Kay, a Manchester textile magnate, bought the estate in 1823. In 1838, Nathan de Rothschild began renting Tring Park as a summer residence. When the property was sold in 1872, Lionel de Rothschild bought it as a wedding present for his son, Sir Nathaniel (later Lord) de Rothschild. Lord Rothschild's family grew up and lived at Tring Park until the death of the dowager Lady Rothschild in 1935. The house was used by the NM Rothschild & Sons bank during World War II before being taken over by the Arts Educational School in 1945.

Notable former pupils

Actors/presenters/writers

*Dame

Julie Andrews Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...

, DBE (The Cone-Ripman School, Tring site) Actress best known for films '' Mary Poppins'' and '' The Sound of Music'' * Joe Ashman, Actor, known for '' Free Rein'', '' Doctors'' and '' Doctors'' *Dame

Beryl Bainbridge Dame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge (21 November 1932 – 2 July 2010) was an English writer from Liverpool. She was primarily known for her works of psychological fiction, often macabre tales set among the English working class. Bainbridge won the ...

, DBE (deceased), (The Cone-Ripman School, Tring site) Actress/writer In 2008, ''The Times'' newspaper named Bainbridge among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". *

Aeronwy Thomas Aeronwy Bryn Thomas-Ellis (3 March 1943 – 27 July 2009) was a poet, writer and translator of Italian poetry. She was the second child and only daughter of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his wife, Caitlin Macnamara. She had two brothers, Lle ...

, (deceased), (Arts Educational School, Tring site) Writer/translator of Italian poetry and daughter of

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Under ...

. Patron of the Dylan Thomas Society * Jane Seymour,

(Arts Educational School, Tring site) Hollywood actress, best known playing Bond girl Solitaire in the film '' Live And Let Die'' and the TV series '' Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' * Michael Learned, (Arts Educational School, Tring site) Actress, best known for her role in '' The Waltons'' * Thandie Newton, (Arts Educational School, Tring site) Hollywood actress and star of films such as; '' The Pursuit of Happyness'', '' Run Fatboy Run'', '' Mission: Impossible 2'' and '' Crash'' *

Bart Edwards Bart Edwards is a British actor. Edwards played the role of Jasper Hunt in Lifetime/Hulu drama series ''Unreal'', and starred as Jonathan Kay in NRK drama '' Lykkeland''. Edwards is set to star in Giles Alderson's thriller ''The Dare'', to be ...

, Actor, best known for TV series Lykkeland * Jessica Brown Findlay, Actress, best known for TV series '' Downton Abbey'' as a lead character: Lady Sybil Crawley (2010/11) * Amy Nuttall, Actress and singer, best known for West End musical '' Guys and Dolls'', TV series '' Emmerdale'' & '' Downton Abbey'' (2011) * Emma Cunniffe, Actress, best known for BBC TV's series '' The Lakes'' *

Caroline Quentin Caroline Quentin (born Caroline Jones; 11 July 1960) is an English actress, broadcaster and television presenter. Quentin became known for her television appearances: portraying Dorothy in ''Men Behaving Badly'' (1992–1998), Maddie Magellan in ...

, Actress and comedian, best known for TV series '' Men Behaving Badly'', '' Blue Murder'' and BBC's '' Life of Riley'' * Valerie Singleton,

, (Arts Educational School, Tring site) Former BBC TV co-presenter of ''

Blue Peter ''Blue Peter'' is a British children's television entertainment programme created by John Hunter Blair. It is the longest-running children's TV show in the world, having been broadcast since October 1958. It was broadcast primarily from BBC Tel ...

'', '' Nationwide'', '' The Money Programme'. * Geraldine Somerville, Actress known for her role of; Lily Potter in the Harry Potter films and the film '' Gosford Park'' * Louise Griffiths, Songwriter/Singer/Actress, best known for BBC TV's ''Fame Academy'' (2003) *

Claire Trévien Claire Trévien is a poet and academic. Biography She was born in Pont-l'Abbé, France in 1985. She obtained a PhD from the University of Warwick in 2012 on 'Revolutionary Prints as Spectacle' and has been published in a number of scholarly jo ...

, poet, author of ''The Shipwrecked House'' * Daisy Ridley, actress best known for her leading role of 'Rey' in the Star Wars sequel trilogy * Aimee Kelly, actress best known in leading roles of 'Maddy Smith' in CBBC's '' Wolfblood'' and 'Kayla Richards' in 2011 movie, '' Sket'' * Lily James, actress best known for Downton Abbey, Cinderella (2015 Disney film) and Baby Driver (2017) and War and Peace (2015) * Jordan Bolger, actor best known for Peaky Blinders,

The 100 The 100 may refer to: Arts and entertainment * 100 (DC Comics), fictional organized crime groups appearing in DC Comics * ''The 100'' (novel series), a 2013–2016 science fiction novel series written by Kass Morgan * ''The 100'' (TV series), 20 ...

, and The Woman King

Musical theatre

Sarah Brightman Sarah Brightman (born 14 August 1960) is an English classical crossover soprano singer, actress and dancer. Brightman began her career as a member of the dance troupe Hot Gossip and released several disco singles as a solo performer. In 1981, ...

, (Arts Educational School, Tring site) Operatic singer, dancer and actress. Celebrated star of Lloyd Webber's Phantom *

Stephanie Lawrence Stephanie Lawrence (16 December 1949 – 4 November 2000) was a British musical theatre actress. Background Stephanie Lawrence was born in 1949 in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. She was the daughter of a Welsh singer, to whom sh ...

(deceased) (Arts Educational School, Tring site) Musical theatre actress, celebrated star of; Lloyd Webber's Evita and original cast lead of Starlight Express *

Charlie Bruce Charlotte "Charlie" Bruce is a British jazz dancer from Cropston, Leicestershire, who won the first UK series of ''So You Think You Can Dance'' in February 2010. She trained in dance at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts (previously the A ...

(Charlotte), Jazz Dancer/West End performer ( Dirty Dancing) and winner of BBC1's,

So You Think You Can Dance (UK) ''So You Think You Can Dance'' is a televised dance competition and reality show that launched in the United Kingdom in January 2010 with a format based on an American show by the same name. The show was broadcast on BBC One. The presentation ...

Season 1, (2010)

Ballet/dance

* John Gilpin (deceased) (The Cone-Ripman School, Tring site), Classical ballet dancer, 'arguably the finest male dancer England has yet produced, the most purely classical' founder member of Festival Ballet (now English National Ballet) *

Rupert Pennefather Rupert Pennefather is a former principal dancer of the Royal Ballet Company. He joined the company in 1999 and was promoted to principal status alongside his pas-de-deux partner Lauren Cuthbertson in June 2008, following well-received performance ...

, (Arts Educational School, Tring site), Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet *

Joshua Thew This is a list of New York City Ballet dancers. Principal dancers Soloists This is a list of New York City Ballet soloists. Corps de ballet The following is a list of the current members of the corps de ballet. * Victor Abreu * Devin Albe ...

, Corps de Ballet, New York City Ballet

References

Bibliography

* Ben Stevenson

'most influential mentors' Eve Pettinger http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1083/is_12_83/ai_n45144389/ * http://www.texasballettheater.org/?q=staff_stevenson

External links

Official website
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110415083328/http://www.tring.gov.uk/info/artsed.htm {{DEFAULTSORT:Tring Park School For The Performing Arts Independent schools in Hertfordshire Schools of the performing arts in the United Kingdom Dance schools in the United Kingdom Relocated schools Tring Member schools of the Independent Schools Association (UK) Boarding schools in Hertfordshire