Tomorrow night (Saturday 9 May) the world renowned dance venue Sadler’s Wells will host the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ’s Young Dancer 2015 Grand Final. The event will be broadcast live on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two. Artistic Programmer and Director of Creative Learning at Sadler's Wells, Jane Hackett explains her role in the process and gives an overview of the inaugural competition.

The idea for the series was suggested to us by Commissioning Editor Jan Younghusband. Inspired by the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Young Musician of the Year, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Young Dancer seemed absolutely obvious. It made us all ask ourselves why hadn't there been a Young Dancer of the Year before?

I became involved when executive producer Paul Bullock visited Sadler’s Wells and asked if somebody could act as a dance consultant for a new competition, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Young Dancer. My role on the team involves putting in the specific dance knowledge to the promotion of the scheme, but also crucially I am looking out for the young dancers and making sure that the whole process is safe, healthy and good for them.

Drawing on my work as a member of programme, I am aware that sometimes in the past, artists were pushed to achieve things without the proper support being in place. There's a very strong movement in dance now to talk about long and sustainable careers, not just doing what is needed in the moment, but thinking how will that impact on this young person, on their body and on their view of themselves. Young Dancer has embraced that from the start.

Every stage of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Young Dancer competition has been really carefully planned to reflect the growing knowledge in the dance sector which is:  you shouldn't encourage young people to be an artist without also teaching them how to follow a healthy diet; how to have a healthy training regime; how to work on self-esteem. It is no mean feat to put yourself out there in front of an audience night after night and have thousands of people judging you and your work, more so if it's going out on national television. All of those things have been really carefully considered - respect to the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ for the way that they have invested in running this, not just as a competition, but as a real learning tool and sharing that knowledge with all the young dancers who might be following the process from across the country.

We wanted the competition to be a vehicle to celebrate all the talent and hard work that's coming through in the next generation of dancers. So, we at Sadler’s Wells were absolutely open to competition. We wanted to support it, but we were also aware that as with any new idea there would be quite a lot of explaining what it was and convincing people that this was a good thing. It being the first year of the competition, I think there was a slight concern that it might be something that gave the impression that you could make a dancer in a few weeks.  Clearly you can't do that. All the young participants have spent hours and hours practising and perfecting what they're doing. The competition was about saying to the dance sector, this is a chance to talk about our work in the way we want to talk about it, and really celebrate the hard work and the talent of the young dancers. The competition has also been really good for the dance sector in that it's putting a new injection of energy and creativity - really helping the next generation push through.

There are four different dance styles in the competition: Hip Hop; South Asian Dance; Ballet and Contemporary.  The styles were chosen because there are hundreds of thousands practising across the country and each style has a very rigorous and detailed technique. In addition, each of those styles is pushing through to become very relevant to the audience of today. The categories aren't museum exhibits. Sometimes, older works are performed, but Young Dancer is about how they performers have those techniques to express something new that's relevant to everyone today, something that can really engage an audience and transmit some of the joy that comes with dancing.

At the start of the competition we asked dancers aged 16-20 to submit a video of their performance on DVD. It was such a broad range of footage: footage people had filmed in their bedroom or kitchen; material filmed in conservatoires or schools. The really fantastic thing was to see the range of young people - the range of dance and the standard of work. It was quite a challenge to choose the twelve dancers for the regional heats from all of the submissions we received.

Throughout the process we thought about what the professional life of a dancer is like because these young people will be hopefully enter the professional world within a year or two. Throughout the process the participants have had mentors who are themselves practising artists, dancers or directing companies who give them the sort of coaching and feedback that they might not otherwise receive. The participants have all left at the end of each day saying how the things they have learnt will benefit them. For me, it has been interesting to see how quickly they've developed throughout the process. 

It's always wonderful to be reminded how much talent there is out there. If you listen to some company directors you might think it is hard finding talented dancers. It's not. There are a lot of young people out there really hungry to work hard, and have the commitment it takes to put themselves into sometimes difficult situations and not take the easy route.

On an individual level, Young Dancer 2015 has reinforced for me that if you set high standards for a young person they will meet them. It's fantastic to have the opportunity to give someone a challenge and also be able to support them in rising to a level that not only surprises everyone around them, but also surprises them too. For them to turn around at the end of the process and say 'I didn't know I could do that', that's wonderful learning for everybody.

Jane Hackett is Director of Creative Learning for Sadler's Wells.

• will be broadcast live from Sadler's Wells on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Two on Saturday May 9 at 7pm.
• Watch all the performances from the category finals on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Young Dancer website.
• Read a press release about the launch of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Young Dancer on th .