The GREAT Big Dance Off

National Schools Dance Competition

The Great Big Dance Off is a popular national dance competition open to schools all across England & Wales.

This is the ONLY national dance competition aimed SOLELY at schools.Our vision is to create an exciting competition bringing together children of all ages and abilities where the emphasis is on having a good time.

The Great Big Dance Off live group competitions are back!

2023/24 was our best year ever and we can’t wait to see what happens next! Entry is now open for the regional heats that will start in Jan 2024 and what’s more, following the overwhelming success of the virtual competition for solo performances, we’ll be running this again in Autumn 2023.

There is a limit of up to 5 entries (in each Key Stage) for the solo competition. For the live (group) competition, we try to accommodate all school requests but do reserve the right to impose some limits on the number of entries per school.

Whatever your preferred style of dancing, whatever your level of experience, we want you to be involved. A bit of imagination, dedication and teamwork is all that is required.

"Wow! What a great competition. Our girls had a wonderful day and were so proud of themselves, and getting third place was the icing on the cake for them. We cannot wait to come back next year and are already making plans.

"I just wanted to thank you on behalf of myself and my students for a fantastic opportunity. It was a wonderful experience for them not only to perform, but to be able to watch other schools perform to an incredible standard. They have come back with so many ideas and things they want to try out."

Can I just say that we had a fantastic day yesterday! The children really enjoyed the experience and the chance to perform in the theatre and the group of children that came to support came home wanting to start dancing - a great result!"

Solo Virtual Competition

The GBDO virtual solo have been a huge success and we love see what people come up with. You all worked so hard and we were impressed by the standard of every entry; it looks like you had lots of fun!

We are delighted to confirm that the virtual solo competition will continue in 2023 so make sure you get submit your entries by Friday 24th November 2023.

Get involved...The Great Big Dance Off entry is now open

Our event is about performance

We want to provide a professional stage where children can enjoy their performance in front of family and friends. We hope they’ll feel like stars as they dance at some of the country’s most special venues.

Don't let the competitive element put you off

Our aim is to create an event young people will enjoy whilst benefiting from the positive elements of competition such as striving to be the best you can be. Who knows, it might be your school that successfully battles it out for the coveted title of NATIONAL SCHOOLS DANCE CHAMPION 2023!

It's easy to enter

Please go to our How it works or our Enter TGBDO page for all the information you need. Registration for the 2022-3 competition is now open! Good luck and we look forward to seeing you at THE GREAT BIG DANCE OFF 2022/23!

Whatever your preferred style of dancing, whatever your level of experience, we want you to be involved. A bit of imagination, dedication and teamwork is all that is required. Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions. We have extensive experience of working in schools and are confident we have planned an event which is easy to enter and understand.

National Schools Dance Competition