Eurovision Young Dancers

The Eurovision Young Dancers (French: L'Eurovision des Jeunes Danseurs), often shortened to EYD, or Young Dancers, is a biennial dance competition, organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and is broadcast on television throughout Europe. Thirty-seven countries have taken part since the inauguration of the contest in 1985; including Kosovo (non-EBU member) and Canada (North American continent). Performers between the ages of 16 and 21, from member countries of the European Broadcasting Union, compete as solo of couples to dance routines of their choice. Professional jury members each representing the elements of ballet, contemporary, and modern dancing, score each of the performances. The two participants which receive the most overall points advance forward to a televised 'dance-off' final, where the winner is decided by the jury.

The 2007 Young Dancers contest was cancelled in a mutual decision between the EBU and Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR idée suisse, to allow the Prix de Lausanne, a similar event organised by the host broadcaster, to take place. Spain are the most successful country in the Young Dancers contest, having won five times 1985, 1991, 1993, 1995, and 1997 respectively. The Eurovision Young Dancers 2015 event took place in Plzeň, Czech Republic, on 19 June 2015.

History

Young Dancers takes place every two-years, in parallel to its successful counterpart, Eurovision Young Musicians (another of the EBU's biennial youth competitions).^[1] The inaugural Eurovision Young Dancers contest took place in Reggio Emilia, Italy, on 16 June 1985.^[2] Eleven countries who are members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) competed in the début contest. Spain won the first edition in 1985, represented by Arantxa Argüelles. Norway, represented by Arne Fagerholt, and Sweden, represented by Mia Stagh and Göran Svalberg, came second and third respectively.^[3]

A total of thirty-seven countries having competed at least once since 1985.^[4] Canada is the only non-European country to have taken part in the contest, although their broadcaster, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), are an associate member of the EBU.^[5]

In the entire history of the event, only two contests (2007 and 2009) have never occurred. The 2007 Eurovision Young Dancers was cancelled to allow the Prix de Lausanne, a similar event organised by Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR idée suisse. The decision to cancel the contest was mutually agreed between the host broadcaster and the EBU.^[6]

Format

The format has been the same since the 1985 inauguration of the competition. All competing dancers are to be non-professional and between the ages of 16–21. Participants may consist of solo or couples, with each performing a dance routine of their choice, which they have prepared in advance of the competition. All of the acts then take part in a choreographed group dance during 'Young Dancers Week'.^[7]

Jury members of a professional aspect and representing the elements of ballet, contemporary, and modern dancing styles, score each of the competing individual and group dance routines. Once all the jury votes have been counted, the two participants which received the highest total of points progress to a final round. The final round consists of a 90-second 'dual', were each of the finalists perform a 45-second random dance-off routine. The overall winner upon completion of the final dances is chosen by the professional jury members.^[7]

Participation

Eligible participants include primarily Active Members (as opposed to Associate Members) of the EBU. Active members are those who are located in states that fall within the European Broadcasting Area, or are member states of the Council of Europe.^[8]

The European Broadcasting Area is defined by the International Telecommunication Union:^[9]

The "European Broadcasting Area" is bounded on the west by the western boundary of Region 1, on the east by the meridian 40° East of Greenwich and on the south by the parallel 30° North so as to include the northern part of Saudi Arabia and that part of those countries bordering the Mediterranean within these limits. In addition, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and those parts of the territories of Iraq, Jordan, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey and Ukraine lying outside the above limits are included in the European Broadcasting Area.^[a]

The western boundary of Region 1 is defined by a line running from the North Pole along meridian 10° West of Greenwich to its intersection with parallel 72° North; thence by great circle arc to the intersection of meridian 50° West and parallel 40° North; thence by great circle arc to the intersection of meridian 20° West and parallel 10° South; thence along meridian 20° West to the South Pole.^[10]

Active members include broadcasting organisations whose transmissions are made available to at least 98% of households in their own country which are equipped to receive such transmissions. If an EBU Active Member wishes to participate, they must fulfil conditions as laid down by the rules of the contest (of which a separate copy is drafted annually).^[8]

Eligibility to participate is not determined by geographic inclusion within the continent of Europe, despite the "Euro" in "Eurovision" – nor does it have any relation to the European Union. Kosovo, a partially recognised state in Southeastern Europe, is the only country in Europe who does not yet have EBU members, but has participated once in 2011.^[11] Several countries geographically outside the boundaries of Europe have competed: Cyprus and Armenia, in Western Asia (both are members of the Council of Europe with Cyprus as a member state of the European Union). Each made their début at Young Dancers in 1989 and 2013 respectively.^[12][13] In addition, several transcontinental countries with only part of their territory in Europe have competed: Russia, since 1995;^[14] Canada in the North America continent, despite only being an associate member of the EBU, have competed twice, in 1987 and 1989.^[5]

Participation since 1985:

  Entered at least once

  Never entered, although eligible to do so

  Competed as a part of another country (Yugoslavia), but never as a sovereign nation

Thirty-seven countries have participated at least once. These are listed here alongside the year in which they made their début:^[4]

Hosting

Most of the expense of the contest is covered by commercial sponsors and contributions from the other participating nations. The contest is considered to be a unique opportunity for promoting the host country as a tourist destination. The table below shows a list of cities and venues that have hosted the Eurovision Young Dancers, one or more times. Future venues are shown in italics. With 3 contests, Poland is the country having hosted the most contests, albeit in different cities.^[15]

Contests	Country	City	Venue	Years
3	Poland	Gdynia	Teatr Muzyczny	1997
		Warsaw	National Theatre	2005
		Gdańsk	Baltic State Opera	2013
2	France	Paris	Palais des Congrès	1989
		Lyon	Opéra de Lyon	1999
1	Italy	Reggio Emilia	Teatro Municipale	1985
	Germany	Schwetzingen	Schwetzingen Palace Theatre	1987
	Finland	Helsinki	Helsinki City Theatre	1991
	Sweden	Stockholm	Dance House	1993
	Switzerland[b]	Lausanne[b]	Palais de Beaulieu	1995
	United Kingdom	London	Linbury Studio Theatre	2001
	Netherlands	Amsterdam	Stadsschouwburg	2003
	Norway	Oslo	Dance House	2011
	Czech Republic	Plzeň	New Theatre	2015
	Malta	Valletta	Mediterranean Conference Centre	2017

Winners

Sixteen performances have won the Eurovision Young Dancers competition, a biennial dance contest organised by member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. There have been fourteen contest, with each having a winner, second, and third places for all dance styles combined, with exception to the 1989 Contest which awarded first place for contemporary and classical dance categories; and the 2003 Contest which gave first place prizes for ballet, modern dance, and a 'Youth Jury Choice' categories. From 2011 onwards, there have only been prizes awarded to the winner and runner-up.^[4] Below is a break-down of all those winners by each individual event and by number of wins per country.

Winners by year

Year	Date	Host City	Countries	Winner	Performer	Runner-up	Third place
1985	16 June	Reggio Emilia	11	Spain	Arantxa Argüelles	Norway	Sweden
1987	31 May	Schwetzingen	14	Denmark	Rose Gad Poulsen & Nikolaj Hübbe	Switzerland	Germany
1989	28 June	Paris	17	France[c]	Agnès Letestu (Contemporary dance)	No runner-up
				United Kingdom[c]	Tetsuya Kumakawa (Classical ballet)
1991	5 June	Helsinki	15	Spain	Amaya Iglesias	France	Denmark
1993	15 June	Stockholm	15	Spain	Zenaida Yanowsky	Switzerland	Austria
1995	6 June	Lausanne	15	Spain	Jesús Pastor Sahuquillo & Ruth Miró Salvador	Sweden	Belgium
1997	17 June	Gdynia	12	Spain	Antonio Carmena San José	Belgium	Sweden
1999	10 July	Lyon	16	Germany	Stegli Yohan & Katja Wünsche	Sweden	Spain
2001	23 June	London	18	Poland	David Kupinski & Marcin Kupinski	Belgium	Netherlands
2003	4 July	Amsterdam	10	Ukraine[d]	Jerlin Ndudi (Ballet)	No runner-up
				Sweden[d]	Kristina Oom & Sebastian Michanek (Modern dance)
				Czech Republic[d]	Monika Hejduková & Viktor Konvalinka (Youth Jury Choice)
2005	24 June	Warsaw	10	Netherlands	Milou Nuyens	Poland	Belgium
2007	4 February	Lausanne	0	Contest cancelled
2009	No contest held
2011	24 June	Oslo	10	Norway	Daniel Sarr	Slovenia	No third place
2013	14 June	Gdańsk	10	Netherlands	Sedrig Verwoert	Germany
2015	19 June	Plzeň	10	Poland	Viktoria Nowak	Slovenia
2017	9 June	Valletta[16]	4 (to date)	TBA	TBA	TBA

Winners by country

Map showing each country's number of Young Dancers wins up to and including 2013

Wins	Country	Years
5	Spain	1985 1991 1993 1995 1997
2	Netherlands	2005 2013
	Poland	2001 2015
1	Denmark	1987
	France	1989[c]
	United Kingdom
	Germany	1999
	Czech Republic	2003[d]
	Sweden
	Ukraine
	Norway	2011

See also

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

• Eurovision Young Dancers site

Eurovision Young Dancers   Contests 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017   Countries Active Albania Czech Republic Germany Malta Netherlands Norway Poland Slovakia Slovenia Sweden Inactive Armenia Austria Belarus Belgium Bulgaria Canada Croatia Cyprus Denmark Estonia Finland France Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Kosovo Latvia Portugal Romania Russia Spain Switzerland Ukraine United Kingdom Former Yugoslavia   Cities and venues 1980s Reggio Emilia, Teatro Municipale Schwetzingen, Schlosstheater Schwetzingen Paris, Palais des Congrès 1990s Helsinki, Helsinki City Theatre Stockholm, Dansens Hus Lausanne, Palais de Beaulieu Gdynia, Teatr Muzyczny Lyon, Opéra de Lyon 2000s London, Linbury Studio Theatre Amsterdam, Stadsschouwburg Theatre Warsaw, National Theatre Lausanne, Palais de Beaulieu 2009 2010s Oslo, Dansens Hus Gdańsk, Baltic Opera House Plzeň, New Theatre Valletta, Mediterranean Conference Centre Portal Project