Eurovision Young Dancers

Host

Produced in the UK in these years:

Deborah Bull and Wayne McGregor (2001)

Co-hosts

Commentary:
Humphrey Burton (1985-7) Annette Page (1985)
Monica Mason (1987)
Judith Mackrell and Richard Alston (1989)
Deborah Bull (1999, 2003-5)

Broadcast

BBC2, 16 June 1985, 31 May 1987 and 1 July 1989

BBC Knowledge, 1999 and 24 June 2001

BBC Four, 12 July 2003 and 24 September 2005

Synopsis

Following the success of Eurovision Young Musicians, a parallel competition for young dancers was established in 1985. As with the music contest, some countries televise their national qualifiers.

The rules specified that all genres - classical, contemporary, jazz, hybrid, hip-hop - were allowed, with the exception of folk dance. The competition was open for solo performers and couples, with performances limited to seven minutes. All performers had to be 21 or younger. Novel choreographies were encouraged, and there was sometimes a prize for best new work. On two occasions, separate prizes were awarded for classical and contemporary pieces.

There was a week-long masterclass immediately before the contest, with the best twelve or so entrants progressing to the televised final. The winners were awarded prizes to benefit their future professional careers.

In the UK, the contest never enjoyed the kudos of Young Musician, and was often buried in a dark corner of the schedules. When the UK hosted the contest in 2001, the BBC was unable to transmit the programme live, and the 2005 competition was not broadcast until three months after it took place. Young Dancers was shelved from its scheduled 2007 edition, replaced it with a Eurovision Dance Contest; the prize was next awarded in 2011, and the BBC did not participate.

Champions

Date	Venue	Winner	Nationality
16 June 1985	Reggio Emilia, Italy	Arantxa Argüelles	Spain
31 May 1987	Schwetzingen, Switzerland	Rose Gad Poulsen	Denmark
28 June 1989	Paris, France	Contemporary - Agnès Letestu Classical - Tetsuya Kumakawa	France United Kingdom
5 June 1991	Helsinki, Finland	Amaya Iglesias	Spain
15 June 1993	Stockholm, Sweden	Zenaida Yanowsky	Spain
6 June 1995	Lausanne, Switzerland	Jesus Pastor Sauquillo and Ruth Miro Salvador	Spain
17 June 1997	Gdynia, Poland	Antonio Carmena San José	Spain
10 July 1999	Lyon, France	Katja Wunsche Yohan Stegli	Germany France	(joint winners)
23 June 2001	London, United Kingdom	Dawid Kupinski and Marcin Kupinski	Poland
4 July 2003	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Classical - Jerlin Ndudi Modern - Kristina Oom and Sebastian Michanek	Ukraine Sweden
24 June 2005	Warsaw, Poland	Milou Nuyens	Netherlands
24 June 2011	Oslo, Norway	Daniel Sarr	Norway
14 June 2013	Gdańsk, Poland	Sedrig Verwoert	Netherlands
19 June 2015	Plzeň, Czech Republic	Viktoria Nowak	Poland
16 December 2017	Prague, Czech Republic	Paulina Bidzińska	Poland

Trivia

The 1987 contest included an entry from a non-EBU member, Canada.

Web links

Official site

Wikipedia entry

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