Dance Direct is looking for the UK’s best student ballet dancer

Posted on May 9, 2014

Ballet typically requires plenty of hard work, finesse and a great sense of timing – whether for the most minimal pirouette or a hugely complicated routine. Those who manage to perfect it will rightly feel a great sense of accomplishment, but those who excel might wonder if they’re among the best dancers around. A competition, the Dance Direct Student Ballet Dancer of the Year, has recently been launched to find the best up-and-coming student ballet dancer in the UK. Run by Dance Direct, it is open only to student ballet dancers who are currently in the midst of a course at a university, a HE college or a specialist dance college.

To enter the competition, all entrants have to do is send a video of themselves dancing, include their name, age, course details and address and their place of study to competitions@dancedirect.com. The video should either be a previous audition tape or an entry video solely for the purpose of this competition. It can be uploaded in the email or be a link to a YouTube video.

Judged by Jessica Wilson, a blogger for Dance Direct, the competition has a first prize of £250 worth of vouchers from the site for ballet gear, as well as a feature about them on the Dance Direct blog. The prize also includes a biography on the site, which will help provide the basis for a long and successful career in ballet dancing.

You can read more about the competition on the Dance Direct blog.

Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray is editor of Dancing Times. He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. For 16 years he was a member of the curatorial department of the Theatre Museum, London, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty. He has also contributed to the Financial Times, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005.

Jonathan Gray

Jonathan Gray is editor of Dancing Times. He studied at The Royal Ballet School, Leicester Polytechnic, and Wimbledon School of Art where he graduated with a BA Hons in Theatre Design. For 16 years he was a member of the curatorial department of the Theatre Museum, London, assisting on a number of dance-related exhibitions, and helping with the recreation of original designs for a number of The Royal Ballet’s productions including Danses concertantes, Daphnis and Chloë, and The Sleeping Beauty. He has also contributed to the Financial Times, written programme articles for The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet, and is co-author of the book Unleashing Britain: Theatre gets real 1955-64, published in 2005.