Eurovision Dance Contest - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Eurovision Dance Contest was an international dancing competition that was held for the first time in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

on Saturday 1 September 2007.

The contest was inspired by the television show Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing
Strictly Come Dancing is a British television show, featuring celebrities with professional dance partners competing in Ballroom and Latin dances. The title of the show suggests a continuation of the long-running series Come Dancing, with an allusion to the film Strictly Ballroom...

, a 2004 revival of Come Dancing
Come Dancing
Come Dancing was a BBC TV ballroom dancing competition show that ran on and off from 1949 to 1998, becoming one of television's longest-running shows....

in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

, which is a massive hit in over 25 countries around the world. The contest was in addition to the Eurovision Song Contest

Eurovision Song Contest

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...

.On 9 May 2007, the International DanceSport Federation

International DanceSport Federation

The World DanceSport Federation , formerly the International DanceSport Federation , is the international governing body of dancesport and Wheelchair DanceSport, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee .Originally founded in 1957 as the...

(IDSF) officially announced its association with the Eurovision Dance Contest. IDSF credits the contest to Richard Bunn

Richard Bunn

Richard Bunn is managing director of rbi network, Geneva, a consulting firm for television, sport and marketing, established in 2000.During 1978-2000 he was Head of Television Programmes and Controller of Sport at European Broadcasting Union...

of rbi network, Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, former EBU controller of sport, who convinced the EBU to create this TV programme.

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

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

or text messaging

Text messaging

Text messaging, or texting, refers to the exchange of brief written text messages between fixed-line phone or mobile phone and fixed or portable devices over a network...

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.

2007

Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 was hosted in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

. In EDC 2007 each couple has performed two 1 minute 30 seconds dances: the first dance was a ballroom

Ballroom

A ballroom is a large room inside a building, the designated purpose of which is holding formal dances called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions contain one or more ballrooms...

or Latin dance while the second was a freestyle dance. Professional dance couples were allowed to enter the competition. Finland won the competition.

2008

Several changes were introduced for Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 which was hosted in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

. Professional dance couples were no longer allowed, all pairs had to include one professional and one celebrity

Celebrity

A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

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.

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.

Countries taking part

Year	Debuting countries	Withdrawing countries
2007 Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 The Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 was the 1st Eurovision Dance Contest a dance entertainment co-production between the EBU and the BBC. The first ever pan-European dance competition was held on 1 September 2007 in London, United Kingdom with the participation of 16 countries...	, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,	-
2008 Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 The Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 was the second Eurovision Dance Contest and was held in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, hosted by BBC Scotland on 6 September.The winner of contest was Poland who achieved a score of 154 points...		, ,

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. The Eurovision Dance Contest follows the same selection process as the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Junior Eurovision Song Contest

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest , is an international song competition which has been organised by the European Broadcasting Union annually since 2003 and is open exclusively to broadcasters that are members of the EBU. It is held in a different European city each year.The competition has many...

Year	Host City	Presenters	Winner	Winner's Dancers	Points	Margin	Second place	Date
	London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... , United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...	Graham Norton Graham Norton Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist... and Claudia Winkleman Claudia Winkleman Claudia Anne I. Winkleman is an English television presenter, film critic, radio personality and journalist.- Early life and family :...	Finland Finland in the Eurovision Dance Contest Finland won the first Eurovision Dance Contest in 2007. Jussi Väänänen and Katja Koukkula were chosen to represent the country on 25 August 2007 in a national preselection. Finland was the last country to decide who to send to the contest, the contest taking place only a week after the selection...	Jussi Väänänen Jussi Väänänen Jussi Väänänen is a competitive dancer who won the Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 with his partner Katja Koukkula.Jussi and Katja started their professional career in 2000 and they are Finnish champions in competitive dance. They got 132 points in Eurovision Dance Contest by dancing the Rumba and... and Katja Koukkula	132	11	Ukraine Ukraine in the Eurovision Dance Contest Ukraine took part in the first Eurovision Dance Contest in 2007. Representing the country were Yulia Okropiridze, a student of Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, and Illya Sydorenko, a professional in ballroom choreography. The dances they performed on the night were Quickstep and...	1 September 2007
	Glasgow Glasgow Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands... , United Kingdom United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...	Graham Norton Graham Norton Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton , is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist... and Claudia Winkleman Claudia Winkleman Claudia Anne I. Winkleman is an English television presenter, film critic, radio personality and journalist.- Early life and family :...	Poland Poland in the Eurovision Dance Contest Poland took part in the first Eurovision Dance Contest in 2007. Katarzyna Cichopek and Marcin Hakiel who won the series "Taniec z gwiazdami" represented the country. The dances that were performed at the contest were Cha-Cha-Cha and Showdance...	Edyta Herbuś Edyta Herbus Edyta Herbuś ; born February 26, 1981 in Kielce, Poland) is a Polish dancer, model and actress. Edyta was the winner of the Eurovision Dance Contest 2008 with partner Marcin Mroczek representing Poland.-Biography:... and Marcin Mroczek Marcin Mroczek - Biography :Marcin Mroczek was born on 18 July 1982 in Siedlce, Poland. He has a twin brother Rafał who is 7 minutes older. At the age of 10, Marcin joined the Modern Dance Team “Caro Dance” in Siedlce. Together with this team, he won multiple Polish and European championships...	154	33	Russia Russia in the Eurovision Dance Contest Russia took part in the first Eurovision Dance Contest in 2007. The couple chosen to represent the country were Vladislav Borodinov & Maria Sittel. The dances they performed at the contest were Rumba and Paso Doble. Russia came seventh after receiving 72 points from 11 countries....	6 September 2008

External links

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