Got to Dance, originally titled Just Dance,[1] is a British dance competition that was broadcast on Sky 1 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.[2] However, on 31 January 2014, Merrygold announced that he would be leaving the show.[3] Garcia returned as a judge for series 5 in 2014.[4] 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.[5]
Format
There were five stages to the competition:
Stage 1: Producers' auditions (these auditions decide who will perform in front of the judges, but they are not broadcast or acknowledged on the show)
Stage 2: Judges' auditions
Stage 3: Callbacks (some acts may have to perform again at this stage for a place in the semi-finals)
Stage 4: Live Semi-finals (each act performs in one semi-final, with only two advancing to the final, three in series 5)
Stage 5: Live Final
Voting
Viewers in both Ireland and the United Kingdom could vote via Phone, Red Button (through Sky TV only) 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.
The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2010 began on Sunday 24 January 2010. There were six acts in each live semi-final (18 in total). 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.
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 (at the time).
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:
Alleviate (won) vs Sean and Stacey,
Dance Dynamix (won) vs Frameous,
Lauren Hair (won) vs Natalie,
Addam McMillian vs Crazy Popper (paired as duo named Liquid Metallic)
The live semi-finals for Got to Dance 2011 began on Sunday 30 January 2011. There were seven acts in each live semi-final (28 in total). 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.
The live final was 90 minutes long (taking place at Olympia) 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.
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.
The live final took place at Olympia in front of 6,000 people on 4 March 2012.
Live Final (4 March)
Order
Contestant(s)
Number of Gold stars
Result
1
Antics
★★
Eliminated
2
Tayluer & Elliott
★★★
Top 3
3
Boadicea
★★★
Eliminated
4
Fear of the Unknown
★★★
Top 3
5
Kazzum
Eliminated
6
Sweet Surprise
★★
Eliminated
7
Methods of Movement
★★★
Eliminated
8
Prodijig
★★★
Winners
9
A Team
Eliminated
10
Unity UK
★★★
Eliminated
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.[7]
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 (10 February)
Semi-final 2 (17 February)
Semi-final 3 (24 February)
Semi-final 4 (3 March)
Semi-final 5 (10 March)
Contestants eliminated
Notorious Dance For Joy Molly and Vitaly Collective Ent.
The live final took place at Olympia in front of 6,000 people on 17 March 2013.
Live Final (17 March)
Order
Contestant(s)
Number of Gold stars
Result
1
Mini Moves
★★★
Eliminated
2
Lukas McFarlane
★★★
Winner
3
IMD
★
Eliminated
4
Gymtasia Evolution
★
Top 3
5
Rory
★
Eliminated
6
Tom
★★★
Eliminated
7
Antics
★
Eliminated
8
Rhys
★★★
Eliminated
9
Godson
★★
Eliminated
10
Ruff Diamond
★★★
Top 3
Series 5 (2014)
Series 5 began airing on 9 August 2014,[9] with McCall continuing as host. Banjo and Wyatt returned as judges for a fifth time and Garcia returned after his absence in series 4, replacing Merrygold. In this series, the semi-finals were stripped across one week (similar to Britain's Got Talent)[10] and the judges mentored contestants throughout the competition. Six acts from each team progressed to the live rounds. Auditions for this series took place at the Roundhouse concert venue in Camden, London between 6–11 May 2014. This is the first and only time that the dance domes have not been used.[11] Series 2 winners Chris and Wes returned to Got to Dance and were joined by Joe Sugg to form the Backstage/Online team.[12]
Producer auditions for Got to Dance 2014 took place during March and April 2014 in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow and Dublin.
The second series saw the introduction of the bursary fund. This fund, worth £15,000, was to be distributed amongst auditionees that the judges felt weren't yet good enough to progress in the competition, but whom they felt had real potential, and was to be used to enable them to develop and cultivate their dance skills through professional tuition.
Transmissions
Warm-up shows
Air date
20 December 2009
19 December 2010
18 December 2011
23 December 2012
27 July 2014
Original series
Series
Start date
End date
Episodes
1
3 January 2010
14 February 2010
8
2
2 January 2011
27 February 2011
15
3
1 January 2012
4 March 2012
16
4
6 January 2013
17 March 2013
15
5
9 August 2014
29 August 2014
11
Ratings
Episode ratings from BARB.[16] They do not include viewings on Sky 1 +1.
CBS announced on 10 April 2010 that there was going to be an American version of the series titled Live to Dance and was set to rival So You Think You Can Dance. The show premiered on the said channel on 4 January 2011 and was cancelled a month later in the same year. Kimberly Wyatt also served as a judge on Live to Dance.
A Polish version premiered 2 March 2012 on Polsat, titled Got to Dance - Tylko Taniec. Second edition aired from 7 September to 9 November 2012. A third edition began on 1 March 2013 and a fourth in September 2013. Since March 2011, Polsat have also produced a local version of Must Be the Music (which was first aired on Sky1 in 2010) and has aired its sixth edition. Both shows air two seasons a year in Poland.
Australian version
Plans for an Australian version of the show were announced in April 2012. It was expected to premiere on the Australian cable channel Fox8 later in 2012, with Andrew Günsberg as the host.[18] However, it was announced in June 2012 that the show was cancelled due to a scheduling conflict with another dance show Everybody Dance Now on Network Ten.[19]
