Eurovision Dance Contest

The Eurovision Dance Contest (not to be confused with the "Eurovision Young Dancers Competition") is 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 is 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. [ [http://www.idsf.net/press07/dance_contest.doc IDSF Presidium announcement] ] IDSF credits the contest to Richard Bunn of rbi network, [ [http://www.easymonitoring.ch/handelsregister/rbi_network_richard_600974.aspx rbi network, Richard Bunn, Genève - easyMonitoring ] ] Geneva, former EBU controller of sport, who convinced the EBU to create this TV programme. [ [http://www.idsf.net/agm_2007/President_Letter_AGM_2007.doc IDSF President Address of the occasion of IDSF’s 50th Anniversary] ]

Format and general information

The competition consists 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 may vote will 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. [ [http://www.ebu.ch/en/eurovisiontv/entertainment/edc.php Eurovision Dance Contest EBU (Bottom of page)] ]

Contests

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, and one of them representing Finland has won the competition.

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. [http://esckaz.com/edc/2008/ Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 Glasgow Танцевальное Евровидение 2008 Глазго ] ]

Countries taking part

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 [cite web
title = FAQ Eurovision Dance Contest - Glasgow 2008
url=http://www.eurovisiondance.tv/page/help-faq
accessdate = 2008-09-20 ] .

ee also

* Eurovision Song Contest

References

External links

* [http://www.eurovisiondance.tv Official Eurovision Dance Contest website]
* [http://www.ebu.ch/en/eurovisiontv/entertainment/edc.php EBU Press Release]
* [http://www.idsf.net/ International DanceSport Federation official website]
* [http://esckaz.com/edc/ ESCKaz Eurovision Dance Contest pages (English/Russian)]