South Downs Dance Festival

19/11/2023

Please see below entry forms and syllabus information for entry in our 2024 festival.

19/11/2023

Entry forms will go live on this page later today.
This is for returning schools only.
Please return forms via email only to [email protected]

Please do not make payments until you have received a confirmation email.


We look forward to receiving all your entries !

29/10/2023

🎉 Exciting News! Entries for the Dance Festival open on November 19th for returning schools!
Any available places will be released to new schools on Jan 1st 2024. Due to high demand in previous years and limited theatre availability entries will only be accepted until we are full and class sizes will be capped.
Don't miss the deadline – mark your calendars! 🎶

11/06/2023

https://scarlettcookphotos.pixieset.com/southdownsfestival2023/?fbclid=PAAaZzLz6CmyOfo3FfZHBgX2vM31vFCHUX52f4O7iCF2hUV_W7-EwC5kWaL3M_aem_th_AesCbsZSxUZgFMO_DQLLGYwp85EroUeyN5ksTQu_b97cwYN31K_ngB9WkNKklywHf50.

Some photos are now ready, more will be uploaded

Photo collection by Scarlett Cook Photos

30/04/2023

Desperately need a writer for the last day of festival tomorrow! Please get in touch, we have had a writer struck by illness x x

30/04/2023

We are going to start the festival 15 minutes earlier today.
Please be at the festival in plenty of time for morning sections.
Door open at 8.00
Primary mixed age will begin at 8.30 all dancers in this section have been contacted

Looking forward to seeing everyone for day 2.

29/04/2023

Please can I ask that if possible spectators can come with change tomorrow, this would help us enormously. Thanking you in anticipation.
Hot and cold food will be available all day tomorrow, please place orders for jacket potatoes on arrival.
Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow x

28/04/2023

We have made the decision that we will not be opening the wait list over the weekend.

The festival is jam packed with dancers and a very tight schedule and so therefore we have made the decision that any withdrawn dancers will allow both the adjudicator and our team of volunteers a well deserved few minutes extra break!

Please do not attend the festival if you have not already been asked for your music and a confirmed place via payment has taken place

28/04/2023

Trophy winners 2022:

Please remember to return your trophies. After the loss of many trophies during the Covid period all trophies that were awarded last year were purchased new.

Any trophies not returned at this festival will be invoiced to the person responsible for entries for 2022.

Please make every attempt to return your trophies so that other dancers can experience the same sense of achievement this year.

We look forward to welcoming you tomorrow.

26/04/2023

We look forward to welcoming you all on Saturday!

Doors will open at 8.15.
Cash only venue, please ensure you have cash for your spectaor pass!

We will be running a coffee shop serving freshly made sandwiches, jacket potatoes and hot dogs, alongside snacks , cakes and both hot and cold drinks!

24/04/2023

Introducing our 2023 adjudicator

Miss Tanya Allen

LRAD, ARAD, FISTD, PGC(A) LNATD
British Federation. British Arts Awards & All England Dance Adjudicator,
RAD Examiner

Miss Allen trained in the Reading area until the age of 17, making several appearances on TV and in pantomimes. She then went to The College of the Royal Academy of Dancing in London where she won the Clement Crisp extra history prize for her in-depth study into Thai folk and classical dance. She graduated in 1985, having passed many teaching examinations, including anatomy & Laban, RAD Advanced Examination (now Advanced 2), ISTD Associate & Associate Diplomas in Modern, Tap and National. On graduation from the RAD College, she was elected a Licentiate (LRAD) and then went on to complete ISTD Licentiate, Licentiate Diplomas and Fellowship alongside her PGC (A) in adjudication (validated by Bretton Hall at Leeds University.)

Having taken a special interest in National Folk Dance, Miss Allen has travelled throughout the world studying the national dances of many countries. She has given lectures and special courses in Bournemouth, Southampton and Yorkshire and has appeared on Meridian Television teaching national dance. She worked alongside her local Indian community and choreographed, and costumed, a performance of The Ramayana, which was a great success. In August 1996, Miss Allen was awarded The Helen Wingrave Scholarship by the ISTD National Dance Faculty. Miss Allen has been an adjudicator for the Grandison Clark National Dance Competition heats, ISTD Greek Choreographic and Ruby Ginner Awards and was presented with the Haxell cup by the ISTD national committee for all her work and support of the National Faculty over the years. Having studied the ISTD Bahratnatyam syllabus, in October 2015 was asked to perform a solo Bharatanatyam dance in full Indian Classical dance costume at the Reading Arts Centre Theatre in Celebration of Diwali and has continued to take examinations in this genre.

Miss Allen now runs a large school est 1985 (The Allenova School of Dancing) with over four hundred pupils where she teaches all aspects of dance and theatrical training, from the lower grades right through to Advanced 2 level. As well as running the school, she supplies many children and students for dancing parts in operatic performances, pantomime, charity work, TV and fashion shows and The International Opera and Ballet Company.

Many of Miss Allen’s students have gone on to full-time training at well-known dance colleges across the country. Some deciding to teach and others perform in the theatre, Disney land Paris & Japan and onto Cruise ships and touring dance companies. Apart from all her teaching and examining for The Royal Academy of Dance ( RAD) . Miss Allen is also a Vice-President of The Tilehurst Eisteddfod Dance Festival, A festival which she ran for over 9 years. She is a registered teacher of both the RAD and ISTD, a British Federation & British Arts Awards Adjudicator and is on the panel of The All-England Dance Competition.

Most recently during Oct 2021 Miss Allen won an award at the DANCE SCHOOL OF THE YEAR – IDTA Award for Artistic Endeavor.And in 2022 was voted by the ISTD membership to become a member of the ISTD National faculty committee.

19/04/2023

Apologies for the public post but we are still without a couple of pieces of music and I have been unable to find entry forms to contact parents/guardians.
Sofia Sawyer-Modern
Edith Neil- Ballet
Please can you contact us ASAP, thank you

15/04/2023

There are over 200 pieces of music that have not been uploaded for the upcoming festival. The deadline is tomorrow and the music link will expire at the end of this date. If you have not uploaded your music and are expecting to dance you must upload this ASAP.

09/04/2023

We still have lots of outstanding music. Please remember the upload deadline is fast approaching.

If you are no longer able to dance please inform us via email or direct message as we do have a waiting list for several sections.

08/04/2023

Excited to have the wonderful Scarlett Cook Photos join us for two days of the festival!

05/04/2023

Can the parent/guardian/teacher of Sophie Bridgland please contact us asap.

26/03/2023

We are now taking music for the festival. Please check your inboxes for an upload link.
Please use the link below to upload your music for the upcoming festival.

We ask that all music is labelled in the following way name_section. For example GrettaBradley_Modern10
The deadline for uploading music is the 16th April 2023. Any music not received by this date we will have to presume you no longer wish to participate.

https://www.dropbox.com/request/Na4r463PRwcLpIf0WAQ6.

We Look forward to hearing from you soon,

South Downs Festival Team

17/03/2023

Please find attached a link to the timetable for our 2023 festival, This link will also be sent to those who were responsible for entries this year. Please share this file with those within your dance school.

We are pleased to welcome Tanya Allen as our adjudicator this year.

12/01/2023

Festival is now full we will not be taking any more entries.
If you have not paid yet please do so promptly as your places are only secure once we receive payment
Thank you

10/01/2023

The following sections are now closed and further entries will now go onto a waiting list:

9-10 Modern, Ballet, Character, Song & Dance-
13-14 Modern

Last date for entries is 30th January. We will not be accepting any late entries.

04/01/2023

Please can we ask that you do not send payment until places are confirmed, thank you

02/01/2023

Character 9-10 & Modern 9-10 are both now full.

A waiting list is now in place for these two sections.

02/01/2023

The age 9-10 modern section is now full!
We will now start a waiting list for this section.

01/01/2023

29/12/2022

We have outstanding payments from dancers who have attended before!

Please make payment to ensure your slot remains yours when entries re open on the 1st!!

Entry forms to be sent to [email protected] for new entries

27/12/2022

We will be accepting entries from new schools/ dancers who have not attended before from 1st Jan !

We anticipate that some sections will close quickly due to being close to capacity currently.

Please use the links below to download and complete your entries before the 1st so you can send them in as quickly as possible!

We will update this page when sections become full.

Please can we ask that you do not send any money until we have confirmed your places. Many thanks

Festival Rules
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EkjC4GuUYIiPf8FOoy7vRvvn7rPpLxFW/view?usp=share_link

Entry Grids
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JcBeKnVVy5_QQSXMr-skpOyOtVXmfUxw/view?usp=share_link

Entry Form
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18s3bP1gLLy6Kg81BA9Q6tpFiMKMcfnQo/view?usp=share_link

Please note: No entries are confirmed until payment is received.

We look forward to receiving your entries.

18/11/2022

Schools and dancers who have competed with us before, if you are thinking about entering our 2023 festival please remeber we are opening to new schools on Jan 1st and have had lots of enquires with people ready to book! We will not be holding or reserving spaces.

We like to support returning schools and dancers which is why we have given 2 months priority booking.

Once sections reach max capacity we will post sections here as they close.

10/11/2022

Just a polite reminder that your dancers places are not secured until payment has been made! Thank you

05/11/2022

The age 9-10 sections are proving extremely popular! If you have participated in our festival before please do get your entries in as soon as possible, we cannot guarantee any spaces after 1st Jan!

03/11/2022

Just a reminder that we are currently only accepting entries from dance schools who attended the festival in 2022.

This does not include schools who had dancers perform as private or independent entries.

02/11/2022

Wow! Entries are coming in fast for our 2023 festival. Thank you so much for your support. We are really excited for three full days of dance!

01/11/2022

Entries are now open for returning schools. Priority booking for these schools will stay open until the 1st Jan. At this time we will open to other schools.

Any entries received before this date, from schools who have not attended the festival previously, will be returned.

Festival Rules
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1EkjC4GuUYIiPf8FOoy7vRvvn7rPpLxFW/view?usp=share_link

Entry Grids
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JcBeKnVVy5_QQSXMr-skpOyOtVXmfUxw/view?usp=share_link

Entry Form
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18s3bP1gLLy6Kg81BA9Q6tpFiMKMcfnQo/view?usp=share_link

Please note: No entries are confirmed until payment is received.

We look forward to receiving your entries.

18/10/2022

We are pleased to inform you all of the dates for our 2023 festival! 29th April -1st May 2023, Turing School Eastbourne.

Entries will open for priority booking for returning dance schools from 1st Nov 2022.

Entries for schools/ private entries who have not competed at the festival before will open on 1st Jan 2022.

Please make sure you are following the page for further information on entering the festival.

08/05/2022

Aggregate Award Winners - 5 highest marks from across the genres, excluding disco, choreographic & Acro.

Age 5 & 6 Mia Gambriel, runner up Ellie Rose Bayley
Age 7 & 8 Isla Gambriel, runner up Darcie Gregory
Age 9 & 10 Lacey Mae Hall, runner up Isabella De Luca Walker
Age 11 & 12 Ellie Gladman
Age 13 & 14 Twyla Bradley, runner up Lola Thornton
Age 15 & Over Anna Jeffery

08/05/2022

Thank you to everyone who attended the festival. We have loved seeing all the young performers enjoying themselves and experiencing performing on stage.

A big thank you to our team of volunteers who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes both during and after the event.

Trophy winners 2022

Highest Mark in Ballet 10 & Under- Martha Bootland
Highest Mark in Tap 10 & Under- Lacey Mae Hall
Highest Mark in Modern 10 & Under - Isla Gambriel & Lacey Mae Hall
Highest Mark in Lyrical 10 & Under - Mia Farley
Highest Mark in National 10 & Under- Isabella De Luca Walker
Highest Mark in Greek 10 & Under- Lacey Mae Hall
Highest Mark in Character 10 & Under - Lily Herberg & Lacey Mae Hall
Highest Mark in Song & Dance 10 & Under- Isla Gambriel

Highest Mark in Ballet 11 & Over - Anna Jeffery
Highest Mark in Tap 11 & Over - Olivia Wise
Highest Mark in Modern 11 & Over - Holly Urtell
Highest Mark in Lyrical 11 & Over - Twyla Bradley & Anna Jeffery
Highest Mark in National 11 & Over - Chanel Pritchard
Highest Mark in Greek 11 & Over - Annna Jeffery
Highest Mark in Character 11 & Over - Anna Jeffery & Emma King
Highest Mark in Song & Dance 11 & Over - Twyla Bradley

Highest Mark Contemporary - Mia Farley
Highest Mark Disco/Street - Rose O’Brien
Highest Mark Choreography - Mia Farley
Highest Mark Acro - Mia Farley

10 & Under Vocal - Isla Gambriel
15 & Under Vocal - Chanel Pritchard

Primary Duet - Mia Gambriel & Elsie Brooks
Highest Mark 10 & Under Duet Stage - Martha Bootland & Phoebe Green
Highest Mark 14 & Under Duet Stage- Mia Farley & Izzy Curd
Highest Mark 15 & Over Duet Stage -Twyla Bradley & Chanel Pritchard
Highest Mark 10 & Under Duet Classical - Isla Gambriel & Isabelle Greve
Highest Mark 14 & Under Classical Duet - Martha Bootland & Elouise Nickols
Highest Mark 15 & Over Classical Duet - Lola Thornton & Imogen Trevett/ Twyla Bradley & Chanel Pritchard

Primary Trio - Sophie Ireland,Emma Greve, Ellie Rose Bayley
Highest Mark 10 & Under Trio Stage & Quartet - Gretta Bradley, Isabella De Luca Walker, Phoebe Wise, Isabelle Ireland
Highest Mark 14 & Under Trio Stage - Mia Farley, Holly Urtell, Poppy Farley
Highest Mark 15 & Over Trio Stage - Lola Thornton, Isla Jones, Imogen Trevett
Highest Mark 10 & Under Trio Classical - Isla Jones, Willow Smeaton, Darcie Gregory
Highest Mark 15 & Over Classical Trio- Casey Davis, Lola Thornton, Imogen Trevett

Adjudicators Choice Awards- Chosen by the adjudicator at her discretion.

Most Promising Junior 10 & Under - Lily and Grace Herberg
Most Promising Inter 14 & Under- Lola Thornton
Most Promising Senior 15 + - Chanel Pritchard
Endeavour Award - Ellie Gladman
Most Entertaining - Esme Taylor & Adara Pascoe
Stand Out Performer- Isla Gambriel

06/05/2022

Unfortunately the hot food van will not be attending festival this weekend.

We will continue to offer refreshments but additionally will have on offer

Jumbo Hot Dogs £1.50
Toasties £1.50 (cheese & ham, cheese & onion, cheese & pickle)

Please pre-order your hot food before lunchtime tomorrow so that we do not have an excess of food wastage.

Many Thanks

05/05/2022

Trophies & Awards 2022 - as per our earlier post trophies will not be awarded for every section this year. If you have won an award and we are already able to determine this you will be contact on Saturday evening. Most awards will not be able to be decided until Sunday, many classes in each genre have yet to be performed.

Aggregate awards for each age category.

To be eligible for the aggregate award a dancer must perform at least 5 solos across the stage and classical genres. The dancers highest 5 marks will be added together and the dancer with the highest score will be awarded the trophy. PLEASE NOTE DISCO,ACRO & CHOREOGRAPHIC SOLOS are not included in this award.

Highest Mark in Ballet 10 & Under
Highest Mark in Tap 10 & Under
Highest Mark in Modern 10 & Under
Highest Mark in Lyrical 10 & Under
Highest Mark in National 10 & Under
Highest Mark in Greek 10 & Under
Highest Mark in Character 10 & Under
Highest Mark in Song & Dance 10 & Under

Highest Mark in Ballet 11 & Over
Highest Mark in Tap 11 & Over
Highest Mark in Modern 11 & Over
Highest Mark in Lyrical 11 & Over
Highest Mark in National 11 & Over
Highest Mark in Greek 11 & Over
Highest Mark in Character 11 & Over
Highest Mark in Song & Dance 11 & Over

Highest Mark Contemporary
Highest Mark Disco/Street
Highest Mark Choreography
Highest Mark Acro

10 & Under Vocal
15 & Under Vocal

Primary Duet
Highest Mark 10 & Under Duet Stage
Highest Mark 14 & Under Duet Stage
Highest Mark 15 & Over Duet Stage
Highest Mark 10 & Under Duet Classical
Highest Mark 14 & Under Classical Duet
Highest Mark 15 & Over Classical Duet

Primary Trio
Highest Mark 10 & Under Trio Stage
Highest Mark 14 & Under Trio Stage
Highest Mark 15 & Over Trio Stage
Highest Mark 10 & Under Trio Classical
Highest Mark 14 & Under Classical Trio
Highest Mark 15 & Over Classical Trio

Adjudicators Choice Awards- Chosen by the adjudicator at her discretion.

Most Promising Junior 10 & Under
Most Promising Inter 14 & Under
Most Promising Senior 15 +
Endeavour Award
Most Entertaining
Stand Out Performer

02/05/2022

Thank you all so much for a fantastic weekend.

Please note that we are not awarding a trophy for every section as we have in previous years. A list of trophies being presented will be posted in the week and dancers/teachers will be contacted if they have won an award.

Thank you again for your continued support