''The Greatest Dancer'' is a British

dance competition Competitive dance is a popular, widespread sport in which competitors perform dances in any of several permitted dance styles—such as acro, ballet, contemporary, jazz, hip-hop, lyrical, modern, musical theatre, tap, and improv—before a ...

television series created by Simon Cowell and produced by

Syco Entertainment Syco Entertainment is a British media entertainment company, headquartered in London, founded and owned by British entrepreneur and record executive Simon Cowell. The company focuses on TV production. The company was formed in 2005 through So ...

. The first BBC programme created by Cowell, ''The Greatest Dancer'' sees previously undiscovered dance acts perform live weekly for

Cheryl Cheryl is a female given name common in English speaking countries. There are several prevailing theories about its etymology. The most common is that it has Italo-Celtic roots and is an Anglicised version of either the French name Cherie (from ...

Oti Mabuse Otlile "Oti" Mabuse (born 8 August 1990) is a South African talent show judge, presenter, dancer and Latin dance champion currently based in the United Kingdom. She is best known for being a professional dancer on the British television series ' ...

, Matthew Morrison and Todrick Hall (the "Dance Captains") and a studio audience in a competition to win £50,000 and a chance to perform on ''

Strictly Come Dancing ''Strictly Come Dancing'' (informally known as ''Strictly'') is a British dance contest show in which celebrities partner with professional dancers to compete in mainly ballroom and Latin dance. Each couple is scored by a panel of usually 4 ...

''. The first series aired on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

on Saturdays from 5 January to 23 February 2019, and was won by 14-year-old solo dancer Ellie Fergusson from Livingston, West Lothian, who was mentored by Oti Mabuse. A second series premiered on 4 January 2020, with the addition of Todrick Hall to the judging panel, and

Curtis Pritchard Curtis Pritchard (born 8 February 1996) is an English dancer and Choreography (dance), choreographer, known for his role as a professional dancer on the Irish version of ''Dancing with the Stars (Irish TV series), Dancing with the Stars''. In 2 ...

replaced Amelia Wilson as the receptionist. The series ran until 7 March 2020, when it was won by Latin and ballroom dancers

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...

and Jowita, also mentored by Mabuse. On 28 April 2020, the BBC announced that were no plans for any further series of ''The Greatest Dancer''.

Series overview

*Series 1: 5 January – 23 February 2019 (8 episodes) **Auditions: 5–26 January 2019 **Live shows: 2–23 February 2019 *Series 2: 4 January 2020 – 7 March 2020 (10 episodes) **Auditions: 4–25 January 2020 **Live shows: 1 February–7 March 2020 Judges: : Dancer in Team Oti : Dancer in Team Matthew : Dancer in Team Cheryl : Dancer in Team Todrick

Format

A non-televised pilot for the show was filmed in February 2018 at

Hammersmith Apollo The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Ham ...

in London.

Auditions

The auditions for the first series took place at

ICC Birmingham The International Convention Centre (ICC) is a major conference venue in Birmingham, England. The centre incorporates Symphony Hall and faces Centenary Square, with another entrance leading to the canals of Birmingham. The Westside area, which ...

in August of the previous year and were divided into three episodes in 2019, and four in 2020, airing each Saturday. Auditioning acts were allowed to consist of any number of members, and each person participating was required to be at least 7 years old. Each auditioning act performed in front of a one-way mirror and each audience member had a light to turn on during each audition that they liked; only acts for whom at least 75 percent of the audience turned on their lights would qualify for the callbacks. The format was adapted from the Israeli television music competition franchise '' Rising Star''. In the second series, at the end of each audition show, one Dance Captain chose their 'Greatest Dancer Of The Day', an act of their choice which advances straight to the live shows.

Callbacks

The callbacks aired as a separate show in 2019, and immediately after the fourth round of auditions in 2020. From the acts that had qualified for the callbacks, the Dance Captains each selected three to join their team (or two in the second series as they had each already chosen a 'Greatest Dancer Of The Day' for their team previously).

Live Challenge

Each Saturday, the final acts performed to stay in the competition. Each act was assigned a different challenge, which they had to incorporate into their performance. Much like the auditions, each audience member had a light to turn on during each performance that they liked. After all acts had performed, the public were given the opportunity to vote for their favourite acts. Either one or two acts were voted off each week, eventually leaving four to compete in the final show.

Final

Each of the four acts in the final firstly perform a collaboration with their respective Dance Captain, and the act that received the fewest votes from the public finished in fourth place. The three remaining acts then each performed a reprise of the dance they performed in the auditions stage. The act that received the most votes from the public was crowned the winner and received £50,000 and a chance to perform on the next series of ''

''.

Series 1 (2019)

Live show details

Acts

Week 1 (2 February)

*Group performance: " The Greatest" with Dance Captains *Guest performance: Freya Ridings (" Lost Without You") with

Rambert Dance Company Rambert (known as Rambert Dance Company before 2014) is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it exerted a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingd ...

Week 2 (9 February)

*Guest performance: Years & Years (" Play") with BalletBoyz

Week 3: Semi-final (16 February)

*Guest performance: The professional cast of ''

'' and the Dance Captains

Week 4: Final (23 February)

*Guest performance: Jess Glynne (" I'll Be There") with

breakdance Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...

crew The Ruggeds :Dance 1: Performance with Dance Captain (one act eliminated) :Dance 2: Reprise of audition dance

Series 2 (2020)

The second series started on 4 January 2020. In a change from last year, at the end of each week a different coach was chosen to pick an act from that week to join their team. The choices were as follow:

Auditions

Week 1

was selected to choose ''a Greatest Dancer of the Day''.

Week 2

Todrick Hall was selected to choose ''a Greatest Dancer of the Day''.

Week 3

Matthew Morrison was selected to choose a ''Greatest Dancer of the Day''.

Week 4

was selected to choose a ''Greatest Dancer of the Day''.

The Final 12

Live Challenge Shows

Challenge Show 1

*Theme: Best of British

Challenge Show 2

*Theme: Props

Challenge Show 3

*Theme: Around the World

Challenge Show 4 (Quarter-Final)

*Theme: Dance Fusion

Challenge Show 5 (Semi Final)

*Theme: Coaches' Pick

Final

:Dance 1: Performance with Dance Captain (one act eliminated) :Dance 2: Reprise of favourite dance

Judges, receptionist and presenters

Overview

;Key : Presenter of ''The Greatest Dancer'' : Receptionist of ''The Greatest Dancer'' : Dance Captain of ''The Greatest Dancer -

Presenters

On 19 July 2018, it was announced that

Alesha Dixon Alesha Anjanette Dixon (born 7 October 1978) is an English singer, rapper, dancer, television personality, and author. She gained recognition in the early 2000s as a member of the R&B, garage and hip hop group Mis-Teeq. The group disbanded in ...

and Jordan Banjo would host the programme. File:Alesha Dixon at Tup Tup Palace (cropped).jpg,

(2019–20) File:No image.png, Jordan Banjo (2019–20)

Dance panel

On 10 August 2018, it was announced that the show's Dance Captains were

, Matthew Morrison and

. For the 2020 series, dancer Todrick Hall joined as the fourth Dance Captain. File:Cheryl Cole Cannes 2014.jpg,

(2019–20) File:Matthew Morrison Peabody 2010 (cropped).jpg, Matthew Morrison (2019–20) File:Todrick_Hall_2019_(cropped).jpg, Todrick Hall (2020)

International versions

The format has been sold to broadcasters in China, Denmark, Spain and Belgium (North and South).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Greatest Dancer, The 2019 British television series debuts 2020 British television series endings 2010s British reality television series 2020s British reality television series English-language television shows BBC high definition shows BBC reality television shows Dance competition television shows Television series by Fremantle (company)