For Isla White, performing has never felt like something she simply chose to do. It has been part of who she is for as long as she can remember. “As a toddler I was always dancing and singing around the house, the grocery store, or really every waking moment,” she recalls. “It didn’t matter where, I loved to dance.” Recognising that enthusiasm, her parents enrolled her in dance lessons when she was four, beginning a journey that would eventually take her from the studio to professional musical theatre and, today, to performing internationally at Universal Studios Beijing. “My love for dance increased,” Isla says. “I have always loved musicals and after seeing my first, I was hooked and loved the idea of performing on the big stage myself.”
Much of the foundation for that career was developed through her years of training at Conroy Performing Arts College, where Isla learnt that preparing for a life in the performing arts requires far more than simply becoming a strong dancer, singer or actor. Her training encompassed dance and voice alongside ballet, tap, jazz and acrobatics, helping to develop the versatility that would later become central to her professional career. Just as importantly, she began to understand the realities of auditioning and the resilience required to navigate an industry in which talent alone does not determine who gets the job. “Preparing for a professional career is not something that happens overnight, it takes time,” she explains. “I learned that when it comes to auditions, it’s about being the missing puzzle piece they are seeking. It’s not just being able to sing, dance and act, there’s so much more that goes into the casting.” Learning not to interpret rejection as failure became one of the most valuable lessons of her training. “I was taught to shake it off. It’s not personal, you just didn’t fit the puzzle of what they needed.”
That lesson was particularly relevant when an unexpected opportunity arose to audition for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Australian production of Matilda the Musical. Isla had watched friends preparing for the auditions but initially did not fit the casting brief and therefore had little reason to expect that she would be auditioning herself. Then, at the last moment, the brief changed. “The audition for myself was very last minute,” she recalls. “I’d had many friends preparing but I didn’t match the brief and didn’t have much time to prepare, so my teachers were great and encouraged me to audition with a song I already knew rather than attempt anything new.” It proved to be valuable advice. Rather than allowing the sudden opportunity to send her scrambling for something she believed the panel might want, Isla walked into the room with material in which she felt secure. “It was a song I was very confident and comfortable singing. At the last moment the brief was amended, which allowed me to audition. It was a few big days of auditions and the wait to find out felt like eternity.”
The wait was worth it. Isla was cast as Amanda Thripp and performed with Matilda the Musical across Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, as well as Auckland in New Zealand. For a young performer, joining a major professional production brought extraordinary opportunities, but it also introduced responsibilities that required maturity well beyond simply learning choreography, songs and dialogue. School continued alongside performances, while Isla also needed to maintain the dance technique she had spent years developing. “Balancing school and performing was a juggle, but it made my ability to multitask and have the ability to balance life much stronger,” she says. “Aside from schooling, keeping up my skills in dance was also something I had to work on.”
Yet it is the people rather than the pressures that remain among Isla’s strongest memories of Matilda. Being surrounded by experienced professional performers gave her a glimpse of the artist she hoped to become, while the care provided by those working behind the scenes showed her another side of professional theatre. “Meeting the wonderful cast and crew from the experience is something else,” she says. “I was inspired by the adult cast to grow up to be just like them. I would tell them, ‘I’m going to be you when I grow up!’” Equally memorable was the support given to the production’s young performers. “The crew looked after us so well, ensuring we were mentally and physically well, and really ensured we were cared for, especially being so young.”
Experiencing professional theatre at such an early age ultimately reinforced rather than changed what Isla had already been taught about training. Versatility matters, and the styles a young dancer may be tempted to dismiss can one day become precisely the skills that secure a professional opportunity. “My perspective hasn’t changed,” she says. “I had teachers that prepared us to be versatile in our dance training and it is something I’d recommend. Train in all styles, even the ones you are not fond of. You never know what skills you’ll need.” Isla’s own training reflects that philosophy. Alongside advanced ballet qualifications, she has gained teaching certifications across ballet, tap, jazz and acrobatics, while continuing to develop as a singer, dancer and actor.
As Isla has moved from student to professional performer and teacher, she has also discovered how much teaching can contribute to her own artistry. Having experienced the difference between executing choreography and truly performing it, she encourages her students to understand that technique is only one part of what an audience sees. “I think encouraging dancers to not just dance but actually perform the steps is vital,” she explains. Teaching has also challenged Isla in unexpected ways, requiring her to continually find new approaches to communicating movement and inspiring students. “Teaching has encouraged me to be on my toes all the time and has helped me become more creative.”
Her professional journey has continued to broaden well beyond the musical theatre stage. Isla has worked across live performance and television, including three series of Pipsqueaks as a resident dancer, and in 2024 represented Australia at the International Youth Dance Festival 75th Anniversary in Macau. In 2026, that journey has taken her internationally once again, this time as a commercial dancer at Universal Studios Beijing, where her performance credits include Cool Summer, the resort’s fifth anniversary advertising and a half-time show. It is another example of why Isla believes young dancers should resist narrowing their training too early. A career can take directions that are impossible to predict while standing at the barre as a young student.
There are still many directions Isla hopes her own career will take. Musical theatre remains firmly in her sights, while teaching and continued education are equally important parts of the future she is building. “I’d love to return to performing in musicals in the next few years and also, one of my long-term goals is to add to my list of certifications,” she says. “I have certifications in ballet, tap, jazz, acrobatics and a diploma in musical theatre. But for now I would love to continue my journey at Universal Beijing Resort.”
Perhaps the most valuable lesson Isla carries from the four-year-old who simply could not stop dancing, through Matilda, teaching and now performing internationally, is that a successful career does not need to look exactly like anyone else’s. Opportunities change, auditions do not always lead to jobs and the path a performer imagines at the beginning may look very different once they begin living it. Her advice to young dancers is therefore wonderfully simple: “Be yourself and follow your heart. Don’t let setbacks turn you away, as they will happen. Just find a new path to make things happen.”
And if there is one idea Isla hopes young performers remember as they navigate their own ambitions, it is not to measure themselves against the person beside them. “Walk to your own beat, be you,” she says. “You don’t need to be someone else. Be the best version of you.”
