Eurovision Dance Contest
The Eurovision Dance Contest was an international dancing competition that was held for the first time in the United Kingdom on Saturday 1 September 2007.
The contest was inspired by the television show Strictly Come Dancing, a 2004 revival of Come Dancing in the United Kingdom, which is a massive hit in over 25 countries around the world. The contest was in addition to the Eurovision Song Contest.On 9 May 2007, the International DanceSport Federation (IDSF) officially announced its association with the Eurovision Dance Contest.[1] IDSF credits the contest to Richard Bunn of rbi network,[2] Geneva, former EBU controller of sport, who convinced the EBU to create this TV programme.[3]
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[edit] Format and general information
The competition consisted of pairs of dancers from each participating country, each pair performing one dance, a freestyle dance in which the cultures of the individual countries can be showcased to the rest of Europe. In addition to being judged by a panel of experts in the arena, the European audience cast their vote for their favourite couple via telephone or text messaging to determine winner of the competition.
The BBC was "host broadcaster" for the first two contests in 2007 and 2008, the only contests to date.[4]
[edit] Contests
[edit] 2007
Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 was hosted in London. In EDC 2007 each couple has performed two 1 minute 30 seconds dances: the first dance was a ballroom or Latin dance while the second was a freestyle dance. Professional dance couples were allowed to enter the competition. Finland won the competition.
[edit] 2008
Several changes were introduced for Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 which was hosted in Glasgow. Professional dance couples were no longer allowed, all pairs had to include one professional and one celebrity dancer. Only one, 2 minute dance, was performed by each couple. A professional jury was introduced to the competition having approximate weight of 20% of the outcome, while the remaining 80% came from televoting.[5]
[edit] 2009
The competition which was to have been held in Azerbaijan has now been cancelled as the EBU has said there is "a serious lack of interest" in the contest. As of now, there are no plans to ressurrect the Eurovision Dance Contest.[citation needed]
[edit] Countries taking part
| Year | Debuting countries | Withdrawing countries |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 |  Austria,  Denmark,  Finland,  Germany,  Greece,  Ireland, Lithuania,  Netherlands,  Poland,  Portugal,  Russia, Spain,  Sweden,  Switzerland,  Ukraine,  United Kingdom |
- |
| 2008 |  Azerbaijan |
Germany, Spain, Switzerland |
[edit] Winners/host city
The contest differs from the Eurovision Song contest in that the winning country does not automatically become host for the next contest.[6] The Eurovision Dance Contest follows the same selection process as the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
| Year | Host City | Presenters | Winner | Winner's Dancers | Points | Margin | Second place | Third place | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | London, United Kingdom |
Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman |
Finland |
Jussi Väänänen and Katja Koukkula | 132 | 11 | Ukraine |
Ireland |
1 September 2007 |
| 2008 | Glasgow, United Kingdom |
Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman |
Poland |
Edyta Herbuś and Marcin Mroczek | 154 | 33 | Russia |
Ukraine |
6 September 2008 |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ IDSF Presidium announcement
- ^ rbi network, Richard Bunn, Genève - easyMonitoring
- ^ IDSF President Address of the occasion of IDSF’s 50th Anniversary
- ^ Eurovision Dance Contest EBU (Bottom of page)
- ^ Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 Glasgow Танцевальное Евровидение 2008 Глазго
- ^ "FAQ Eurovision Dance Contest - Glasgow 2008". http://www.eurovisiondance.tv/page/help-faq. Retrieved 2008-09-20.
[edit] External links
- Official Eurovision Dance Contest website
- EBU Press Release
- International DanceSport Federation official website
- ESCKaz Eurovision Dance Contest pages (English/Russian)
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