17 year old Dance City student Connor Scott from Blyth has won the first ever BBC Young Dancer 2015 – a new national dance award run by the BBC.

The Grand Final of BBC Young Dancer 2015, hosted by Zoe Ball and Darcey Bussell was broadcast live on BBC Two on Saturday evening.

Connor was up against five other dancers, between them representing ballet, contemporary, hip hop and South Asian dance. Connor was awarded one of two ‘wild-card’ places in the Grand Final of BBC Young Dancer, which went to two outstanding dancers from across all categories.

He started training in ballet and contemporary four years ago after gaining a place on the Dance City Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) programme. Connor is currently studying both on the CAT and on the Level 3 Dance Programme delivered jointly by Dance City and Gateshead College. Since then he has worked alongside choreographers such as Bawren Tavaziva, Renaud Wiser and this year Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui after gaining a place in the National Youth Dance Company. He has just auditioned successfully for a major London school and will start full-time training in September.

Anthony Baker, Dance City Artistic Director and Joint CEO said:

“We are incredibly proud of Connor for winning this prestigious award – an incredible achievement both at such a young age and such an early stage in his dance development. He’s he an exceptionally gifted and talented individual. It’s also a great testament to the high quality dance training he has received at Dance City and Gateshead College and his incredibly dedicated and talented tutors who have supported him. His dancing on the night was absolutely stunning and he is a most deserving winner. Connor is a truly unique and beautiful dancer who has an incredible career ahead of him and we couldn’t be happier for him.”

The Grand Final and each performance from the category Final is available to watch in full at www.bbc.co.uk/youngdancer and available to catch up on iPlayer for 30 days after broadcast.

Image (c) BBC/Guy Levy