Eurovision Young Dancers

French-born ballet dancer Zenaida Yanowsky won the fifth contest for Spain in 1993.

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, then known as Eurovision Competition for Young Dancers, 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 (as well as the only country in North America to have ever participated in a Eurovision event), although their broadcaster, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), is an associate member of the EBU.[5] Eurovision Young Dancers is also the only Eurovision event to feature a country whose broadcaster is neither a full nor associate member of the EBU, as Kosovo made their sole appearance in 2011 (although they have broadcast other Eurovision events for many years). Bulgaria's debut and only appearance in 1991 also marked the first participation of a former Warsaw Pact country in a Eurovision event, as well as the longest gap between a country's debut at another Eurovision prior to appearing at the Eurovision Song Contest (with fourteen years separating their Young Dancers debut and their Song Contest debut).

In the entire history of the event, only three contests (2007, 2009 and 2019) 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 to take place at the same venue. The decision to cancel the contest was mutually agreed between the host broadcaster and the EBU.[6] The following contest was due to be held on 19 June 2009 at the Dance House in Oslo, however was eventually cancelled due to a lack of interest from broadcasters.[7] The contest would eventually be held again in 2011 when the format was revived as a prime time show.[8]

On 23 January 2017 the EBU announced that Maltese broadcaster Public Broadcasting Services (PBS), who agreed to host the event in July 2015, had due to circumstances beyond their control been forced to cancel their staging of the competition. The EBU also stated they were looking for another host broadcaster but should one not be found in time the competition would not take place this year and is expected to return in 2019.[9] On 18 May 2017, Czech broadcaster Česká televize (ČT) confirmed that they would host the contest for a second time.[10]

On 20 December 2018, the contest was cancelled due to the absence of a broadcaster willing to host the competition. As of that time, Malta and Poland were the only eligible countries to have confirmed their intention to participate in the contest.[11]

The generic logo used for the 2011, 2013 and 2015 editions of the contest.

The format has been roughly 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'.[12]

From 1989 to 2003, a semi-final round took place a few days before the Contest, and the jury decided as well which countries qualified for the televised final. In the 2003 contest, the professional jury voted electronically, immediately following each act, awarding points for technique and artistry. For the 2005 contest, the traditional format was changed. A week of dance master classes replaced the semi-final round. Florence Clerc, Irek Mukhamedow, Christopher Bruce and Piotr Nardelli were the dance teachers selected to work with the participants and tasked to select the 10 finalists out of the 13 participating countries.

In 1989 and 2003, the contest awarded two sets of first prize, one for classical and one for contemporary dance. An additional "Youth Jury" prize was awarded in 2003 chosen by a panel of dance enthusiasts in the audience.

The format is revamped in 2011 to include a 'final duel' round and the semi-finals are removed due to the low number of participating countries. 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.[12]

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.[13]

The European Broadcasting Area is defined by the International Telecommunication Union:[14]

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.[15]

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).[13]

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.[16] 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.[17][18] In addition, several transcontinental countries with only part of their territory in Europe have competed: Russia, since 1995;[19] 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-six countries have participated at least once. These are listed here alongside the year in which they made their début:[4]

Host cities of the Eurovision Young Dancers

A single contest

Multiple contests

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.[20]

Contests	Country	City	Venue	Years
3	Poland	Gdynia	Teatr Muzyczny	1997
		Warsaw	National Theatre	2005
		Gdańsk	Baltic State Opera	2013
2	Czech Republic	Plzeň	New Theatre	2015
		Prague	Congress Centre	2017
	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

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(s)	Performer(s)	Dance
1985	16 June	Reggio Emilia	11	Spain	Arantxa Argüelles	Unknown
1987	31 May	Schwetzingen	14	Denmark	Rose Gad Poulsen and Nikolaj Hübbe	Divertissement from "La Sylphide"
1989	28 June	Paris	17	France[c]	Agnès Letestu (Contemporary dance)	Unknown
				United Kingdom[c]	Tetsuya Kumakawa (Classical ballet)
1991	5 June	Helsinki	15	Spain	Amaya Iglesias	Variations from "La Grisi"
1993	15 June	Stockholm	15		Zenaida Yanowsky	"Esmeralda"
1995	6 June	Lausanne	15		Jesús Pastor Sahuquillo and Ruth Miró Salvador	"Arrayan Daraxa"
1997	17 June	Gdynia	13		Antonio Carmena San José	"Angelitos Locos"
1999	10 July	Lyon	16	Germany	Stegli Yohan and Katja Wünsche	"Cinderella"
2001	23 June	London	18	Poland	David Kupinski and Marcin Kupinski	"Brothers"
2003	4 July	Amsterdam	17	Ukraine[d]	Jerlin Ndudi (Ballet)	"Le Corsaire"
				Sweden[d]	Kristina Oom and Sebastian Michanek (Modern dance)	"Light Beings"
				Czech Republic[d]	Monika Hejduková and Viktor Konvalinka (Youth Jury Choice)	"The Twilight Of Innocence"
2005	24 June	Warsaw	13	Netherlands	Milou Nuyens	"Snakesense"
2011	24 June	Oslo	10	Norway	Daniel Sarr	"Full Force"
2013	14 June	Gdańsk	10	Netherlands	Sedrig Verwoert	"The 5th Element"
2015	19 June	Plzeň	10	Poland	Viktoria Nowak	"Piece in Old Style"
2017	16 December	Prague	8		Paulina Bidzińska	"La Certa"

Winners by country

Map showing each country's number of Young Dancers wins up to and including 2017

The table below shows the top-three placings from each contest, along with the years that a country won the contest.

Country				Total	Years won
Spain	5	0	1	6	1985 1991 1993 1995 1997
Poland	3	1	0	4	2001 2015 2017
Netherlands	2	0	1	3	2005 2013
Sweden	1	2	2	5	2003
France	1	1	1	3	1989
Germany	1	1	1	3	1999
Norway	1	1	0	2	2011
Denmark	1	0	1	2	1987
Czech Republic	1	0	0	1	2003
United Kingdom	1	0	0	1	1989
Ukraine	1	0	0	1	2003
Slovenia	0	3	0	3	N/A
Belgium	0	2	2	4	N/A
Switzerland	0	2	0	2	N/A
Austria	0	0	1	1	N/A

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Eurovision Young Dancers.

• Official website
• Eurovision Young Dancers – European Broadcasting Union