Eurovision Dance Contest 2010
It’s that time of year again, where I have been responsible for organising the Annual Dance Show, after the success of last year’s Eurovision Dance Contest, we decided to run it in the same style again, only this year securing a slot on Look North aswell!!
Back in September 2009, I met with students who were members of the Campsmount Dance Academy. They were then asked to get into friendship groups in each year group and were handed their “Eurovision Brief”.
Students had to choose a song and set to work choreographing their routines. Unfortunately when the fire struck in December, some students struggled to attend practices down at Askern Welfare, so we lost some of the performers. However, the majority still attended practices and they continued to work hard and put together some fantastic routines.
Students worked with Bekki Dyas, Campsmounts Street Dance Coach, Mrs Knowland and Miss Lindley at the academy to develop these pieces. Askern Spa Junior School and Norton Junior School also participated in the contest, working with staff at their school and alongside Campsmount students, who are currently undertaking the Level 1 Dance Leaders Course. Also new in the contest this year were performances from the newly formed Campsmount Cheerleading Club, the students put on an amazing display in their new Cheerleading kits supplied by Living Cheer.
On the night of the show the doors opened and guests were greeted with a large projector screen showing all the students rehearsing their routines. This was a great way of getting the audience into the Eurovision theme. Alongside this the students all sat around tables with their flags in the middle showing which country they belonged to. Spectators were all handed hand wavers when they arrived for the country that they had come to support and whilst waiting all 62 performers did a fantastic job of getting the crowd going with their hand wavers and cheering for their countries.
Due to the stage being destroyed in the fire, we hired professional staging, lighting and sound system, which was organised by Mr Huntridge and some of the students attended a Youth Bank Trust Meeting to gain funding to help pay for this.
Again we pretended that the United Kingdom had won the contest in 2009 and this was the reason for us hosting the contest. Therefore, first of all a performance was given by what was meant to be the winning dance by United Kingdom in 2009. This was performed by performers from Upstage School of Theatre Dance, including Bekki Dyas. After this performance 10 countries in total that had entered the contest performed, which were Denmark, Romania, FYR Macedonia, Cyprus, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Sweden, Turkey, Iceland & Greece.
At the end of all the performances a short break was given for the judges to reflect on all the performances and for them to decide on the scores they were going to give out. Then each judge from the 10 countries were allowed this year to give only 1 point to their own country, then they gave points from 2 -8, 10 and 12, reflecting the scoring system of the Eurovision Song Contest. Mr Huntridge was also a fantastic asset on the night, presenting the show and even sampling some French when announcing the points during the results. We had a large scoring system on the projector screen reflecting how the results are given in the contest. Also each judge had to say” Good Evening Europe” in their own language, then say for example “Here are the results of the Danish Jury” then after giving their scores they had to say thank you and goodbye in their own language.
After a very close contest between Denmark and United Kingdom, Denmark just sneaked in to win the 2010 Eurovision Dance Contest. The winning performers were invited to the stage to receive their trophy and medals and all students received a school trip to City Limits Dance Studio in Sheffield, to experience a taster day of Street Dance, Cheerleading and Latin/Ballroom. Following this the winning country performed their winning dance to Alexandra Burke Broken Heels.
This was a fantastic evening and all of the students who participated in the contest were a credit to our school. This is a great way of developing lots of Cross Curricular links in schools and is something we would recommend to other schools. Not only does it develops Intra-competition within school and participation in out of school hours clubs.
A great successful second Eurovision Party!!!!
C.Knowland
(Campsmount School Sports Co-ordinator)
