BBC Young Dancer 2015

[Guest]

Modelled on the longrunning BBC Young Musician competition, the live Final at Sadlers Wells will be shown on BBC2 on Saturday 9 May.

The four Category Finals have been held in public over the last four evenings, with the Winner announced each night, and the six Finalists will be these four Winners plus two other, "wild card", Finalists not yet announced. There's an embargo on revealing the Winners until the BBC4 transmissions of these Category Finals, on Fridays from 17 April to 8 May.

For a first competition, the structure seems very well designed, both for the dancers and for the audiences. The standard was consistently high and we were well entertained. I picked none of the four winners but was happy with all four outcomes.

I'm looking forward now to the tv programmes, showing the preparation for the Finals, including the mentoring, as well as the actual performances.

I don't know what your opinions are on the BBC Young Musician concept but, on the strength of these four Category Finals, the BBC Young Dancer looks good for dance on tv and for the national profile of dance, particularly youth dance.

[french frank]

I don't know what your opinions are on the BBC Young Musician concept but, on the strength of these four Category Finals, the BBC Young Dancer looks good for dance on tv and for the national profile of dance, particularly youth dance.

A very good thing - although dance comes over less well on radio. Glad you enjoyed it

[Honoured Guest]

A very good thing - although dance comes over less well on radio. Glad you enjoyed it

Conversation, interview and documentary about dance works very well on the radio. A few years ago now, Judith Mackrell made two excellent Sunday Features about leading contemporary choreographers. And I prefer dance reviews on radio to theatre reviews because with dance there's generally much less risk of revealing details better left unknown until you see the production yourself, and most people can learn some information from dance coverage on radio whereas they probably already know much about music and drama. Given that we all move in space, there's surprisingly little dance on the BBC. Perhaps footfall sounds could be included on Radio 3 next time a ballet score is played? Anyway, BBC Young Dancer is a good step forward in tv dance - well-constructed as an entry point for audiences, including young audiences, and with serious integrity for the dancers in competition.

[french frank]

Conversation, interview and documentary about dance works very well on the radio.

I seem to remember reading that John Drummond took great delight in constructing a Proms (?) theme around dance some years back. I don't deny that discussion of some sort on dance is relevant to Radio 3 - though in my recent talk (I think I've mentioned it once or twice ) I pointed out that BBC television's record wasn't too good (ballet is for Christmas, not for life) and that contemporary dance companies which receive public funding would welcome wider availability for their work.

[Mary Chambers]

I shall watch the programmes with interest, though one or two things puzzle me about the concept. What exactly is the present position of the dancers? I see one of the ballet finalists is nineteen years old and at a ballet school in Warrington - a good school, but I would expect any truly outstanding ballet dancer to be a professional in a company by that age. There are no finalists from the Royal Ballet School. I wonder if any entered, or if the school doesn't allow it?

As in Young Musician, the important thing will be to win in one's own category. Surely, though, it's much harder to choose an overall winner from such contrasting disciplines (e.g. ballet and hip-hop) than it is to choose between the instrumental categories in BBCYM?

I'll probably enjoy the ballet most, since it's the only category I know a lot about, but I'm also really looking forward to the South Asian Dance.

[Honoured Guest]

Looking at the programme from the category finals, all five ballet finalists are still in training.

The category finals each had the same general judge plus two category expert judges. I wonder how the two wild card Grand Finalists were selected - whether by the general judge or by a scoring system? The wild cards won't be publicly announced until after the ballet category final is broadcast, which is the night immediately before the live Final.

The Grand Final has a completely new judging panel of six expert judges. Part of this final will see all the finalists performing together in a specially choreographed group piece. As with Young Musician, the criteria aren't category-specific ("technical command, creative and expressive ability") so the judges should be able to argue the merits of dancers of different genres, although obviously the judges won't all be in agreement. It's quite fascinating to read the dancers' biogs and to see how many have moved between dance genres. I think the category final tv programmes may be quite strong at giving an understanding of the dancers' personalities and passions, and how they go about training, but with only very brief extracts from their category final performances. The live Grand Final, on the other hand, will (I presume) broadcast the complete performances.

[Mary Chambers]

I think the category final tv programmes may be quite strong at giving an understanding of the dancers' personalities and passions, and how they go about training, but with only very brief extracts from their category final performances. The live Grand Final, on the other hand, will (I presume) broadcast the complete performances.

It will be very annoying if they don't show much of the dancing in the category finals. The dancing is the point, after all. A bit about background is fine, but I do hope it's not at the expense of the performances. I want to do my own judging!

[Honoured Guest]

It will be very annoying if they don't show much of the dancing in the category finals. The dancing is the point, after all. A bit about background is fine, but I do hope it's not at the expense of the performances. I want to do my own judging!

I understand what you would like, but the category final programmes are only an hour long, with five finalists each week. They've filmed each dancer at home and followed the mentoring process and preparation for the competition stages. So, the programmes should give a good feel for what is involved in dancing in each genre but I assume the final performances will just be glimpsed as the culmination of the process. Hopefully, we'll get an insight into the dance genres we're not familiar with, and some acquaintance with the individual dancers, so that when we come to the Grand Final we can all watch the entire performances with a more educated appreciation of all the dancers and the various genres? And we can do our own judging of the Grand Final?

[Mary Chambers]

There were no 'mentors' or workshops in BBC Young Musician as far as I remember, though there were some programmes that had more personal stuff than performance - there were plenty of complaints, I think.

I am only knowledgable about ballet, so I was hoping to see five performers in that category, and form my own opinion. I do realise, though, that the programme isn't exclusively aimed at me!

[Honoured Guest]

There were no 'mentors' or workshops in BBC Young Musician as far as I remember, though there were some programmes that had more personal stuff than performance - there were plenty of complaints, I think.

I am only knowledgable about ballet, so I was hoping to see five performers in that category, and form my own opinion. I do realise, though, that the programme isn't exclusively aimed at me!

There are no workshops, just mentoring of the competitors by appointed mentors. The dancers take a lot of responsibility for choice of solo and duet choreography (and partner) - some do their own cheoreography - and also have to be able to work well with choreographers and with other dancers. It's a bit different from a young classical musician hiding behind a notated score.

I'm sure you'll be able to form an opinion from whatever you see in the ballet final, and in fact seeing how they got to the performance will probably assist your judgment. Some have more technical command than others, some seem more naturally communicative to the audience, some seem more interested in being creative, etc. You'll see loads of differences to help you decide!

I don't know whether we'll see the dancers in their own training environment with their regular teachers, but that would be enlightening too.

By the way, several of Friday's Contemporary dancers are training in Contemporary and Ballet.

[Pianorak]

I have just watched the Contemporary Dance competition on BBC4 - and picked the winner, Jacob (O'Connel?) . I felt his classical ballet training really gave him the edge, but perhaps also the fact that his dances weren't self-choreographed. I must admit I thought the costumes for him and his partner spoilt the body line of the dancers, but I had to keep telling myself that I am NOT watching Ballet but Contemporary Dance with which I am not at all familiar.

[Mary Chambers]

It all seemed rather tedious to me, and terribly earnest. I can't avoid thinking of contemporary dance as a bit amateur. I thought Diana and Connor (the sixteen year old) were the best, Diana because she really knew how to move with grace and elegance, and Connor because he had great natural ability, as yet somewhat untutored. I hardly noticed the boy who won, I'm afraid!

I shan't bother with hip-hop, probably, but will watch the ballet and the final.

[Honoured Guest]

What do you mean by "amateur"? Not unpaid, I presume. Balletic grace and elegance can be limiting in contemporary dance. Connor had great stage presence in the theatre, connecting directly with the audience, although some of the purer dance audience found his choreography too "gymanstic".

[Mary Chambers]

No, obviously I didn't mean unpaid. I think it's the do-it-yourself, improvisatory, somewhat self-indulgent nature of it that I dislike. I'm not criticising the programme or the dancers. I just don't enjoy the style. It's purely a personal opinion and I know many disagree. Oh, and the music was pretty awful, too.

[Honoured Guest]

No, obviously I didn't mean unpaid.

You might have done! On ballet final night, the audience suddenly had men in wellcut jackets and women with scarves draped around their necks and shoulders. It was quite amusing to see the dance "tribes" in the audience on the different nights.