About South Coast Dance Festivals

South Coast Dance Festivals was created in 2023 by Lucy Russell.

Lucy had competed for many years growing up before going on to have a successful career as a dancer travelling the world on cruise ships, touring with shows, being a showgirl in Paris, a backing dancer for Little Mix, Craig David & Tiesto, plus many more amazing opportunities.

Lucy has been organising dance festivals for 7 years, starting in 2017 with Petersfield Dance Festival as a 3 day event. This has now grown to a 9 day event with over 2500 entries & is now one of the largest All England Qualifying festivals.

Lucy then created Southern Dance Class Awards. This is a one day event which tours the south of the UK. Dancers learn the choreography on the day of the event & compete with the set choreography in front of a panel of adjudicators. Free workshops are also offered at these events.

Since the popularity of Petersfield had grown Lucy started a second dance festival – Southsea Dance Festival which started in 2022 with a 3 day event growing to a 5 day event in 2023 due to the festival filling with entries in a record time of just 1.5 hours.

Lucy is delighted to be creating another event which in time will tour the South Coast with weekend style festivals. 

“ I will be bringing the ethos of all of my other events to South Coast Dance Festivals & that is we are all part of these events because we love dance. Whether this is performing on stage, teaching, being a spectator we collectively gain so much from this art form. This will always remain at the forefront of why I organise event. With this in mind I endeavour to make my events as friendly and welcoming as possible, each dancer deserves their time to shine & be applauded for their efforts on stage. I will always help Parents & Teachers as much as possible to have a calm stress free experience, so anything you need please do ask! I look forward to welcoming you to one of my events!”

We carefully choose our adjudicator each year, alot of factors are taken into consideration. Providing a positive experience is at the forefront of who we choose to adjudicate. Current knowledge of the industry is also a big part, the industry rapidly changes and we want to be safe in the knowledge to know the advice that is being given in relevant to helping the students grow as performers which will fit the current performing arts world. Our adjudicators are from the British and International Federation of festivals all the adjudicators have been trained to the highest level to provide consistent unbiased adjudication.

We look forward to welcoming many performers onto our stage and new schools are always welcome, please take a look around the website, which is packed full of information. 

Please do not hesitate to contact Lucy should you have any questions.

info@southcoastdancefestivals.co.uk