The Final

The competition culminates in a Final. The judging panel, chaired by Dame Antoinette Sibley DBE, President of the Royal Academy of Dance, which included Sir John Tooley, Chairman of the Rudolf Nureyev Foundation and Wayne Sleep OBE, Vice President of the Royal Academy of Dance, had the difficult task of selecting two winners, one from each level plus two runners-up, one at each level who received £250 prize from sponsors International Dance Supplies and a further two candidates who received a commendation, donated by Desmond Kelly (Birmingham Royal Ballet) and David Nixon (Northern Ballet Theatre) following their involvement judging the Birmingham and Manchester regional heats respectively.

The 2008 Fonteyn Nureyev Young Dancers Competition took place in London on Sunday, 13 April 2008. Once again Finalists were offered two days of coaching, including personal coaching from Gillian Lynne CBE, before competing in the Final.

The Final took place at The Bloomsbury Theatre, in front of a live audience in a packed auditorium including Marion Tait (Birmingham Royal Ballet) and Francesca Filpi (Royal Ballet).

Gillian Lynne, who created the magical variations that the candidates performed, set on extracts from John Williams’ score for the Harry Potter films also created a “unison dance” on them, exclusively for the Final night’s performance; she said of this year’s “unison dance” coaching:

"In the end, we only had three and a half hours to pull this piece together. It took a lot of hard work and perseverance, I pushed them to their limits, I wanted them to shine and perform their best."