Eurovision Young Dancers 1997

7. Eurovision Young Dancers
date	June 11, 1997 (semi-finals) June 17, 1997 (final)
Host country	Poland
venue	Teatr Muzyczny, Gdynia
Broadcasting television station
Moderation	Grażyna Torbicka & Bogusław Kaczyński (semifinals) Grażyna Torbicka & Henk van der Meulen (final)
Pause filler	Folk dance group Bazuny
participating countries	13
winner	Spain
First time participation	Latvia Slovakia
Returning participants	Estonia
Withdrawn participants	France Norway Austria Russia Switzerland
Voting rule	A jury of experts determines the first three places. The remaining results remain unpublished.
◄ EYD 1995 • EYD 1999 ►

The 7th Eurovision Young Dancers took place on June 11, 1997 in Teatr Muzyczny, in Gdynia , Poland . The organizer was TVP , which was commissioned to host a Eurovision Young Dancer for the first time.

The winner was the Spanish dancer Antonio Carmena San José with the dance Angelitos Locos . It was Spain's fifth win in the competition and the fourth in a row. Spain holds a record to this day. After all, no other country has won a Eurovision event four times in a row. Belgian dancer Alain Honorez took second place, while Swedish dancer Tim Matiakis took third place. The top 3 thus consisted of the same countries as in 1995 .

venue

TVP chose the Teatr Muzyczny in Gdynia as the venue . However, it was the first time that Poland hosted an EYD. However, it was already the second Eurovision event that Poland hosted after the country hosted the Eurovision Young Musicians competition in 1994 .

format

Dancers between the ages of 16 and 21 could perform. However, only solo dancers or couples could compete. There was another semi-final, as the number of participants would otherwise exceed the time frame. There all 13 participants competed against each other, of which only seven qualified for the final. There was also still a professional jury, but this again awarded 1st to 3rd place. The chairman of the jury was the Russian dancer and choreographer Maja Michailowna Plissezkaja . The other jury members were:

• Paola Cantalupo
• Gigi Gheorghe Caciuleanu
• Katarzyna Gdaniec
• Uwe Scholz
• Heinz Spoerli
• Gosta Svalberg

Moderation

Polish moderator and actress Grażyna Torbicka and Polish moderator and journalist Bogusław Kaczyński acted as moderators in the semi-finals . Grażyna Torbicka was also part of the moderation in the final, but her partner was the moderator Henk van der Meulen. It was the first time in the history of a Eurovision competition that not all programs were presented by the same moderators. Otherwise such a case only happened at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 .

Attendees

Countries that participated in 1997

Countries that have already been eliminated in the semi-finals

Countries that have participated in the past but not in 1997

A total of 13 countries took part in Eurovision Young Dancers 1997, two fewer than in 1995. France, Norway, Austria, Russia and Switzerland finally withdrew from the competition. However, Estonia returned to the competition after a four-year break. Latvia and Slovakia made their debut in 1997.

Recurring performers

The Cypriot participant Carolina Constantinou already participated for Cyprus in 1995 , but did not reach the final. This makes her the second participant in the competition who participated more than once. Cyprus already sent a participant twice with Hélène O'Keefe in 1989 and 1991 .

country	Interpreter	Previous year of participation
Cyprus	Carolina Constantinou	1995

Semifinals

The 1997 semi-finals took place on June 11th, six days before the final. The following countries have already been eliminated in the semi-finals:

country	Attendees	Dance Choreography (C)
Germany	Valentina Scaglia	Le Conservatoir C: HS Paulli, A. Bournonville
Estonia	Mari Savitsky	Don Quixote: Quitry Variations C: M. Petipa
Greece	Nefeli Markaki	Pas de deux C: G. Balanchine
Slovenia	Ana Klasnja	Pas de deux C: G. Balanchine
Hungary	Gabor Kapin	La Sylphide C: A. Bournonville
Cyprus	Carolina Constadinou	La Bayadère C: M. Petipa

final

Seven countries competed against each other. Only the first three places were announced.

space	Start number	country	Attendees	Dance Choreography (C)
1.	7th	Spain	Antonio Carmena San José	Angelitos Locos C: JC Santamaría
2.	1	Belgium	Alain Honorez	The Sleeping Beauty C: M. Petipa
3.	3	Sweden	Tim Matiakis	Paquita C: M. Petipa
-	2	Latvia	Viktorija Jansone	Sleeping Beauty: Aurora's variation C: M. Petipa
-	4th	Finland	Salla Suominen	Romeo and Juliet: Juliet's variation C: E. Sylvestersen
-	5	Slovakia	Roman Lazik	La Sylphide C: A. Bournonville
-	6th	Poland (hosts)	Magdalena Dzięgielewska & Bartosz Anczykowski	Paquita - Grand pas de deux C: F. Capouste

transmission

A total of 17 television companies broadcast the event:

country	Channel
participating countries
Belgium	BRTN , RTBF
Germany	ZDF
Estonia	ERR
Finland	YLE
Greece	ERT
Latvia	LTV
Poland	TVP
Sweden	SVT1
Slovakia	STV
Slovenia	RTV SLO
Spain	RTVE
Hungary	MTV
Cyprus	CyBC
Countries not participating
France	France 3
Ireland	RTÉ
Norway	NRK
Switzerland	SRG SSR

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} EBU : The Eurovision Young Dancers 1997 Official Booklet. In: issuu.com. July 17, 1997, accessed July 21, 2019 . 
2. ↑ ^{a b c} EBU : Eurovision Young Dancers 1997. In: youngdancers.tv. Retrieved July 21, 2019 . 

Web links

• Website (English)