How it works

The Great Big Dance Off is a national dance competition and is open to schools all across England & Wales. There are 3 categories - primary, KS3 and KS4/5 .

Entering the competition
In order to enter, there are two very easy steps:

Each school must register a team by filling out the form on our Solo Competition page. You must do this by 19th October 2020. There is an entry fee of £40, but you only do not have to pay anything at this stage. Only schools short-listed for performance have to pay the entry fee.
Once registered, you need to send us your video, of no more than 3m30s, showcasing the talents of your school team. You can do this by sending us a DVD by post or by uploading your video to our Dropbox account (details upon request). Each video will then be judged by our panel of experts and we will short-list approx. 15-20 schools from each age category to take part in our regional heats. Note, we do not expect the submitted dance video to be the finished article! We appreciate it's a work-in-progress - no need for costumes etc.

Video submission deadlines and the video upload form can also be found on our V irtual Solo Competition page.

Regional Heats
There are 8 regional heats that you can enter. Details of each heat and links to the theatres that are hosting each heat will be posted in September 2020.

Eight regional heat winners (for each age group) will be chosen by our panel of judges on the night and invited (with some runner-ups) to the national championships grand final. Here you will come face to face with schools from other heats for the much-coveted title of National Schools Dance Champion 2020.

Easy Peasy
So all you have to do to enter your team is fill out the entry form and get practising your dance.

For details of our judging criteria, please go to our rules & judging page which will help you prepare.

"Thanks for such a great day, the kids are still beaming!!"

"The atmosphere was amazing"