Eurovision Young Dancers

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.

Trivia

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

Champions

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

See also

BBC Young Dancer, a domestic competition held in 2015.

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