UKEDC AWARDS
The UKEDC Awards recognise the contribution of individuals and organisations to equality dancing in the United Kingdom.
Celebrating equality dance in the UK
Through the awards, the UKEDC aims to:
- Enable the equality dance community to acknowledge and thank people for contributing to that community;
- Bring visibility and prominence to UK equality dance competitors, adjudicators and organisers;
- Recognise that UKEDC members are central to the direction of the UKEDC and are actively involved in its work;
- Provide another channel for members to express their views about what they value;
- Support the implementation of the UKEDC strategy.
The UKEDC awards 2025
The UKEDC awards 2025 are up and running. Read on to find out about the award categories, how to make a nomination, when things will be happening, and how the awards panel will be working.
The awards involve members, non-members, and the UKEDC committee. Anyone can be nominated, including non-members.
- Members and non-members nominate individuals or organisations in different award categories.
- Winners of the previous two years are not eligible to be nominated.
- An awards panel of committee members and other members reviews the nominations to prepare a shortlist for each award category.
- The UKEDC committee reviews and agrees the shortlist.
- UKEDC members vote for those individual and organisations on the shortlist. Each member who is fully paid up two weeks before the start of the voting has one vote per award category.
- In case of a tie in the number of votes, the UKEDC committee decides the outcome.
- The award results are announced, usually as part of the annual UKEDC ball.
The UKEDC Inclusion Award
The award will be presented to a person or organisation that has made an outstanding contribution to including equality dancers within the wider partner-dancing world in the UK.
Examples of possible nominations:
- A teacher or a dance school that has consistently worked to include equality dancers within a teaching environment that is not aimed specifically at equality dancers
- A social dance organiser whose events are not aimed at the equality dance community but who has actively includes equality dancers
- A dance-teaching organisation that has consistently worked to include the needs of equality dancing within its syllabus and training programmes
- A competition organiser that has gone above and beyond to include equality dancers in competitions that are not specifically aimed at equality dancers
- Individuals who have made significant efforts to promote the inclusion of equality dance within the wider partner-dance community
The UKEDC Community Development Award
The award will be presented to a person or organisation that has made an outstanding contribution to strengthening and/or expanding the equality dancing community in the UK.
Examples of possible nominations:
- A teacher, dance school, social dance event organiser or dance holiday organiser that has developed new dancing opportunities aimed specifically at equality dancers
- An individual or organisation that has made a significant contribution to promoting equality dancing within the LGBTQ+ community
- An individual or organisation that has made a significant contribution to developing equality dance competitions such as training competitors, developing rules, organising competitions
- An individual or an organisation that has made a significant contribution to increasing the inclusion with the equality dance community of transgender, non-binary individuals and other minorities
The UKEDC Champion Award
The award will be presented to an individual or organisation who has made a significant, but potentially unacknowledged, contribution to the equality dance community in the UK.
Examples of possible nominations:
- An individual who always makes a special effort to welcome new dancers at equality dance social events
- Someone who frequently volunteers to help out at equality dance events
- An individual who does a great job of posting on social media and keeping everyone up to date
- A competitor or competitive couple who have used their own profile to raise the profile of equality dancing generally
Nominations have now closed.
| When? | What? |
|---|---|
| 11 July 2025 | Nominations open – anyone can nominate! |
| 24 August 2025, 11.59pm | Nominations close |
| Late August to early September | Awards panel selects the short list |
| 7 September 2025 | UKEDC Committee reviews and approves the short list |
| 8 September 2025 | Voting opens – only UKEDC members can vote! |
| After 8 September 2025 | All shortlisted individuals or organisations are notified |
| 21 September 2025, 11.59pm | Voting closes |
| 11 October 2025 | Award winners 2025 are announced at the UKEDC Ball |
- The UKEDC awards panel will comprise one member of the UKEDC Committee plus two or four UKEDC members who are not UKEDC Committee members.
- The panel will be chaired by the UKEDC Committee member. For 2025, this is Thorsten Dreyer.
- The panel will administer the UKEDC awards process including receiving nominations, creating the shortlist following the criteria below, running the membership vote on the shortlist and verifying the final results.
- The shortlist shall be prepared according to the following:
- Where a single individual or organisation receives more than one nomination, the awards panel shall combine these into a single nomination and shall prepare a unified description from the reasons provided on the nominations, choosing the most suitable award category. The awards panel will notify the nominators of the combination (if contact details have been provided).
- The short list for each award should contain no more than three nominations. At its discretion, the panel may include additional nominations if they are felt to be strong enough.
- The panel may also, at its discretion, move nominations between award categories to achieve the most appropriate fit between a nomination and the category description and purpose.
- Those nominations that align most closely with the UKEDC’s strategy should be given greatest weight.
- The shortlist should encourage activities that promote the aims of the UKEDC outside of London and the Southeast of the UK.
- The panel should take into account both the number of nominations for a single nominee and the strength of the nominations. For example, a single, but strong nomination that aligns well with the UKEDC Strategy could be chosen over a nominee with many, but weaker, nominations.
- In general, the winner of any UKEDC award will be excluded from the shortlist for all awards for the two years after the year in which they won their award (i.e. if an award was won in 2022, the first year the winner could be included in the short list would be 2025). All previous winners are listed on the UKEDC website.
- The panel may propose to the UKEDC Committee that a nomination be included in the shortlist before the two-year time limit has passed if it believes that the nomination is for an exceptional contribution.
- The UKEDC Committee takes the final decision on the shortlist that is presented to members for voting, but in general should follow the recommendations of the awards panel unless there are very good reasons to the contrary.
Past UKEDC award winners
Our previous UKEDC awards winners have all made a significant difference to the equality dance community.
| Award category | Winner | Our winner’s impact |
|---|---|---|
| UKEDC Inclusion Award | Bishopsgate Institute | The Bishopsgate Institute provides a wonderfully inclusive space for equality dancing, in its many forms, to grow and thrive. |
| UKEDC Community Development Award | Ralf Schiller | Ralf Schiller has been teaching equality dancers and organised events for them for 35 years. |
| UKEDC Champion Award | Penny Johnson | Penny has been an ambassador for equality dancing for over 20 years, competing in both equality and mainstream competitions. |
Why not have a look at the full list of 2024 nominees, including why they were nominated?
| Award category | Winner | Our winner’s impact |
|---|---|---|
| UKEDC Inclusion Award | Paul Killick | Paul Killick included equality categories in the first Open Worlds competition, a new major international dance sport event at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool. |
| UKEDC Community Development Award | Jacky Logan | Jackie has contributed to equality dancing over many years as a DJ, event organiser, and competitor. |
| UKEDC Champion Award | Michael Hall and George Tzoulas | Michael Hall and George Tzoulas have been ambassadors for and raising the profile of equality dancing within the mainstream competitive dance circuit. |
The first UKEDC awards in 2022 had two broader categories. There were seven winners.
| Award category | Winners |
|---|---|
| Certificate of Honorary Membership | Jacky Logan Vernon Kemp Ralf Schiller Bishopsgate Institute |
| Contribution to equality dancing | Peter Meager Norma Daykin George Tzoulas |