Following the success of the inaugural competition in 2015, BBC Young Dancer 2017 has been inviting dancers aged 16 to 21 to enter in four categories: Ballet, Contemporary, South Asian Dance and Street Dance.
The Grand Final will take place at Sadler’s Wells in London on the 22 April 2017 and will be broadcast on BBC Two. It will feature the winner of each category together with at least one wild card from the Category Finals and will be judged by a leading panel of dance experts: Marc Brew (Artistic Director, Marc Brew Company), Kevin O’Hare (Director of The Royal Ballet), Kate Prince (Artistic Director of Zoonation Dance Company), Nahid Siddiqui (Dancer and Choreographer), Kenneth Tharp (Chief Executive, The Place) and Jasmin Vardimon (Artistic Director, Jasmin Vardimon Company).
British choreographer Shobana Jeyasingh will act as cross-category judge on all four Category Final judging panels.
BBC Young Dancer provides a platform for non-professional UK resident dancers aged 16 to 21 to compete through four rounds designed to highlight their technical command, creative ability and expressive capability.
Their journey, from the early stages through to preparing for the Grand Final, will be documented in four programmes to be shown on BBC Four in the weeks running up to the Grand Final, with each programme focussing.
The finalists will be assessed on three pieces: two solos and a pas de deux / duet. In addition, they will perform in a short group piece, created especially for the Grand Final. The winner will receive a trophy and a £3,000 cash prize to help support further dance studies.