BBC Young Dancer
Awarded forExceptional dancing talent
LocationVarious; Roundhouse, London (2022)
CountryUnited Kingdom
Presented byBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Reward(s)Trophy and £3,000 (main prize)
First awarded2015 (2015)
WinnerAdhya Shastry in 2022
WebsiteBBC Young Dancer website
Television/radio coverage
NetworkBBC Four and BBC Two

BBC Young Dancer is a televised national dance competition, broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Two since 2015. The competition, inspired by the success of the biennal BBC Young Musician of the Year, is designed for British amateur dancers of ballet, contemporary, hip hop and South Asian dance, all of whom must be aged between 16 and 20.[1]

History

BBC Young Dancer was launched in October 2014 by Director-General of the BBC, Tony Hall and was part of BBC Four's Year of Song and Dance. Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta was the competition's ambassador. On 14 January 2015, ballet dancer and Strictly Come Dancing judge Darcey Bussell was announced as co-presenter and dance expert for the Grand Final of the inaugural competition, which was aired live from Sadler's Wells Theatre on BBC Two in May. Zoe Ball and Clemency Burton-Hill were her co-hosts.[2] There were different judges for each style. The category finals for each style were filmed at the Riverfront Arts Centre in Newport and later broadcast weekly on BBC Four. Contemporary dancer Connor Scott won the inaugural competition on 9 May 2015.[3] The grand final was judged by a panel of dance experts: Matthew Bourne, Mavin Khoo, Wayne McGregor, Tamara Rojo, Kenrick Sandy and Alistair Spalding.[4]

The next competition was held in 2017, contemporary dancer Nafisah Baba was announced as the winner of the overall title on 22 April.[5] The category finals were moved to The Lowry in Salford, however the grand final remained at Sadler's Wells Theatre. The televised grand final was hosted by Bussell, Anita Rani and Ore Oduba; it was judged by Kevin O'Hare, Jasmin Vardimon, Marc Brew, Kate Prince, Kenneth Tharp, and Nahid Siddiqui.[6]

The 2019 title, held on 18 May at Birmingham Hippodrome, was won by street dancer Max Revell. The judges this year were McGregor, Shobana Jeyasingh, Emma Gladstone, Christopher Hampson, Junior Bosila Banya and Chitra Sundaram.[7]

The competition returned in 2022 with a new format open to all dance styles; the category finals in Salford were replaced by in-person auditions held in front of a professional panel of judges in Shoreditch, London, with those successful in this round making it through to the final ten who attended a week-long dance residency at Dartington Hall in Devon.[8] Across the four-episode series, the finalists were put through their paces by leading choreographers to prepare new works for the grand final in London's Roundhouse where the winner was crowned. The grand final was judged by Prince, Arthur Pita, Subathra Subramaniam and Ryoichi Hirano.

Hosts

The following have hosted stages of the competition:[9]

Winners

Year Name Category Place of study or training Winning age Finals venue
2015 Connor Scott Contemporary Dance City Centre, Gateshead College[10] 17 Sadler's Wells Theatre, London
2017 Nafisah Baba Contemporary Chrysalis, London[11] 20
2019 Max Revell Street Dance Northern School of Contemporary Dance[12] 20 Birmingham Hippodrome
2022 Adhya Shastry Bharatanatyam National Youth Dance Company 17 Roundhouse, London

Past finalists

Key
Person won the competition of that year
Bold Performer won the category final and a place to the grand final
Italics Performer was given a "wildcard" through to the grand final
Performer was awarded one of two jury awards

2015

Name Category
Anaya Bolar South Asian
Archie Sullivan Ballet
Connor Scott Contemporary
Diana Patience Contemporary
Hamish Scott Ballet
Harry Barnes Hip Hop
Jacob O’Connell Contemporary
Jaina Modasia South Asian
Jenny Hackwell Ballet
Jodelle Douglas Hip Hop
Jonadette Carpio Hip Hop
Kai Tomioka Contemporary
Kasichana Okene-Jameson Contemporary
Kieran Lai Hip Hop
Lakshmi Ranjan South Asian
Paris Fitzpatrick Ballet
Sayaka Ishibashi Ballet
Sharifa Tonkmor Hip Hop
Sivani Balachandran South Asian
Vidya Patel South Asian

2017

Name Category
Harry Barnes Street Dance
Tom Hughes Lloyd
Jodelle Douglas
Kate Morris
Darren Hamilton
Ryan Felix Ballet
Jade Wallace
Rhys Antoni Yeomans
Uyu Hiromoto
Oscar Ward
Akshay Prakash South Asian Dance
Jaina Modasia
Anaya Bolar
Shyam Dattani
Anjelli Wignakumar
Nora Monsecour Contemporary Dance
Jacob Lang
John-William Watson
Nafisah Baba
Joshua Attwood

2019

Name Category
Aishani Ghosh South Asian Dance
Hahika Gautam
Sundaresan Ramesh
Tulani Kayani-Skeef
Shree Savani
Max Cookward Contemporary Dance
Adanna Lawrence
Hannah Connor
Matthew Rawcliffe
Hana Kato
Chloe Keneally Ballet
Hollie Smith
Louis Fukuhara
Danila Marzilli
Keiko Tsuchiya
Thomas Carsley Street Dance
Louie Juster
Christian Griffin
Kate Morris
Max Revell

2022

Name Dance style
Adhya Shastry † Bharatanatyam
Anna Daly Contemporary
Elisabeth Mulenga ‡ Contemporary
Hannah Joseph Contemporary
Kai Scanlan Tap
Lauren Scott Street
Maiya Leeke Contemporary
Matthew Eudu Street
Olivia Chang-Clarke Ballet
Robert Dunkley-Gyimah ‡ Contemporary

References

  1. "BBC launches contest to find future dance stars". BBC News. 2 October 2014. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  2. "Darcey Bussell to front BBC's search for UK's best young dancer". The Guardian. UK. 14 January 2015. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  3. "BBC Young Dancer: Connor Scott named as first winner". BBC News. 9 May 2015. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  4. "BBC Four – BBC Young Dancer – History". BBC. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  5. "Nafisah Baba wins BBC Young Dancer 2017 prize". BBC News. 23 April 2017. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  6. Hutera, Donald (24 April 2017). "Dance: BBC Young Dancer 2017 at Sadler's Wells". The Times. London. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  7. "NSCD student Max Revell wins BBC Young Dancer 2019". 20 May 2019. Retrieved 23 May 2020.
  8. "BBC calls out for dance talent of all types from across the UK as it announces a BBC Dance Season for 2022". 29 April 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  9. "BBC Young Dancer – UKGameshows". ukgameshows.com. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  10. "Dance City Student Connor Scott in BBC Young Dancer 2015". Dance City. 2 April 2015. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  11. "Nafisah Baba – Chrysalis Dance London". chrysalisdancelondon.com. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
  12. Telford, William (16 May 2019). "Plymouth 20-year-old reaches finals of hit BBC dance show". PlymouthLive. Retrieved 4 May 2022.
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