BBC Young Dancer is a televised national dance competition, broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Two, which aired between 2015 and 2022. The competition, inspired by the success of the biennial BBC Young Musician of the Year, was designed for British amateur dancers of ballet, contemporary, hip hop and South Asian dance, all of whom must be aged between 16 and 20.
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. 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. The grand final was judged by a panel of dance experts: Matthew Bourne, Mavin Khoo, Wayne McGregor, Tamara Rojo, Kenrick Sandy and Alistair Spalding.
The next competition was held in 2017, contemporary dancer Nafisah Baba was announced as the winner of the overall title on 22 April. 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.
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.
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. 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:
Darcey Bussell (2015–2017, finals only) Zoe Ball (2015 final) Clemency Burton-Hill (2015 final) Anita Rani (2017–2019) Ore Oduba (2017 final, 2019) Clara Amfo (2022)
Winners Year Name CategoryPlace of study or training Winning ageFinals venue 2015 Connor Scott Contemporary Dance City Centre, Gateshead College 17Sadler's Wells Theatre, London 2017 Nafisah Baba Contemporary Chrysalis, London 20 2019 Max Revell Street Dance Northern School of Contemporary Dance 20 Birmingham Hippodrome 2022 Adhya Shastry Bharatanatyam National Youth Dance Company 17 Roundhouse, London
Past finalists
Key †Person won the competition of that yearBold Performer won the category final and a place to the grand finalItalics 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 BalletConnor 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 NameCategory Harry BarnesStreet Dance Tom Hughes Lloyd Jodelle Douglas Kate Morris Darren Hamilton Ryan FelixBallet Jade Wallace Rhys Antoni Yeomans Uyu Hiromoto Oscar Ward Akshay PrakashSouth Asian Dance Jaina Modasia Anaya Bolar Shyam Dattani Anjelli Wignakumar Nora MonsecourContemporary Dance Jacob Lang John-William WatsonNafisah Baba † Joshua Attwood
2019 Name Category Aishani GhoshSouth Asian Dance Hahika Gautam Sundaresan Ramesh Tulani Kayani-Skeef Shree Savani Max CookwardContemporary Dance Adanna Lawrence Hannah Connor Matthew Rawcliffe Hana Kato Chloe KeneallyBallet Hollie Smith Louis Fukuhara Danila Marzilli Keiko Tsuchiya Thomas CarsleyStreet Dance Louie Juster Christian Griffin Kate MorrisMax Revell †
2022 NameDance styleAdhya 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
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