Got to Dance


Got to Dance, originally titled Just Dance, is a British dance competition that was broadcast on Sky One in the United Kingdom from 20 December 2009 to 28 December 2014. Auditions for the show were held in specially built "Dance Domes" and are open to all dance acts of any age, style or size but must be of an amateur level.
The show was hosted by Davina McCall, with Ashley Banjo and Kimberly Wyatt as judges. In series 1 to 3, Adam Garcia was a judge but was replaced by Aston Merrygold in series 4. However, on 31 January 2014, Merrygold announced that he would be leaving the show. Garcia returned as a judge for series 5 in 2014. Since series 2, the prize money is £250,000 for the winning act. On 24 October 2014, it was announced that series 5 would be the last.

Format

There were five stages to the competition:
  • Stage 1: Producers' auditions
  • Stage 2: Judges' auditions
  • Stage 3: Callbacks
  • Stage 4: Live Semi-finals
  • Stage 5: Live Final

    Voting

Viewers in both Ireland and the United Kingdom could vote via Phone, Red Button or via the official iPhone application, which was introduced in the second series. Viewers could vote for free using the Got to Dance website, which was introduced in the fourth series.

Series overview

Series 1 (2010)

Auditions for the first series were held in October 2009 in Edinburgh, Manchester and London.
The winning act, 10-year-old Akai, won the £100,000 prize money.

Semi-finalists

The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2010 began on Sunday 24 January 2010. There were six acts in each live semi-final. Each act performed in one semi-final each with only 2 advancing to the final. The judges awarded gold stars to the acts they believed deserved a place in the final and red stars to the ones who have not quite delivered the performance that they were hoping for.

Semi Final 1 (24 January)

Semi Final 2 (31 January)

Semi-final 3 (7 February)

Live Final (14 February)

Series 2 (2011)

A second series of Got to Dance began with a special "Warm Up" show that was broadcast on 19 December 2010 then fully on 2 January 2011. The prize money for the second series was £250,000, the largest cash give-away on a television talent show.
The format of the second series of Got to Dance was slightly different to the first series. There were eight audition shows followed by four live semi-finals, and a live final at Olympia, London on 27 February 2011 in front of an audience of 6,000 people. The dance dome auditions for the series were held in Glasgow, Dublin & London.
The winning act, Chris and Wes, won the £250,000 prize money.

Callbacks

At the Callbacks, the judges could not decide between eight of the acts so they organised a dance-off to fill the last four semi-final places. The acts in each category had to "face-off" their opponent with one dance; the judges then decided the winner of the each "face-off" and that act went through to the live semi-finals.
The eight acts in the dance-off were:
The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2011 began on Sunday 30 January 2011. There were seven acts in each live semi-final. Each act performed in one semi-final each with only 2 advancing to the final. The judges awarded gold stars to the acts they believed deserved a place in the final.

Semi-final 1 (30 January)

Semi-final 2 (6 February)

Semi-final 3 (13 February)

Semi-final 4 (20 February)

Final

The live final was 90 minutes long and featured the eight dance acts that made it through the semi-finals as well as a special performance from 2010's winner Akai Osei and dance troupe Diversity. After the acts performed there was a 6-minute window for voting. For the first time in a UK entertainment program, viewers could vote using a specially designed application for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Live Final (27 February)

Series 3 (2012)

Series 3 started on 1 January 2012. Producer auditions took place during July & August 2011 in Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, London and Dublin. Filming took place in various stages from July 2011 – March 2012. The dance domes auditions again took place in London, Glasgow and Dublin.
A special "Warm Up" show was broadcast on 18 December 2011. The series fully began on 1 January 2012, with the next episode the following day. Seven audition shows were aired followed by a "Home Visits" episode and one 30-minute episode featuring the "Callback" performances.
A new show, Got to Dance: Auditions Uncut aired weekdays at 6pm and was narrated by Will Best. As the name suggests, the show featured uncut auditions from the main show and others which were not shown.
The winning act, Prodijig, won the £250,000 prize money.

Semi-finals

The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2012 began on Sunday 29 January 2012. Five semi-finals took place, instead of four as previously. In total, 30 acts advanced to the semi-finals in 2012.

Semi-finalists

Semi-final 2 (5 February)

Semi-final 3 (12 February)

Semi-final 4 (19 February)

Semi-final 5 (26 February)

Final

The live final took place at Olympia in front of 6,000 people on 4 March 2012.

Live Final (4 March)

Series 4 (2013)

Series 4 started in January 2013. Producer auditions took place during July and August 2012. This year, auditions in front of the judges took place at Clapham Common in London. No judges' auditions were held in Glasgow or Dublin. The auditions took place between 13 September and 2 October 2012, in a brand new and bigger dome which can hold up to 760 audience members.
Starting in this series, all acts must receive 3 gold stars from the judges to progress onto the shortlist.
Aston Merrygold replaced Garcia on the judging panel. Jordan Banjo and Perri Kiely were the backstage team for series 4. They also provided the voice overs for many of the episodes of Got to Dance: Auditions Uncut.
Producer audition dates:
DateCity
28–29 July 2012Manchester
30 July 2012Liverpool
2 August 2012Newcastle
4–6 August 2012London
8 August 2012Glasgow
11 August 2012Dublin
16 August 2012Birmingham
17 August 2012Bristol
18 August 2012Cardiff
19 August 2012London
26 August 2012London

Semi-finals

The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2013 began on Sunday 10 February 2013. Five semi-finals took place, with six acts performing in each for one of two places in the Grand Final on 17 March.

Semi-finalists

Semi-final 1
Semi-final 2
Semi-final 3
Semi-final 4
Semi-final 5
Contestants eliminatedNotorious
Dance For Joy
Molly and Vitaly
Collective Ent.		Buckness Personified
Mechanikool
Momentum
Pulse Collective		G-Nome
Hash Tap
Poison
Wild G		Javier and Julie
Amour
Gaana Rajas
One Step Ahead		Juicy
Leon and Dotty
Mindtrick
Shun
Advanced to FinalLukas McFarlane
Tom Hughes-Lloyd		Rhys Yeomans
Mini Moves		Rory O’Shea
IMD 		Antics
Godson		Gymtasia Evolution
Ruff Diamond