Yulia Okropiridze & Illya Sydorenko will represent Ukraine in the very first Eurovision Dance Contest on 1st September. The couple was chosen as the winner out of six contestants during an interactive voting held by the TV channel UT-1.

Update (2):

You can find an image gallery with pictures of the six couples here.

Update:

More details on how the selection has passed have now been published. On 8th June, six couples performed three daces each during a live broadcast. Two dances were taken from their official concert programme and a third one was a freestyle including elements of the Ukrainian culture. The winners received 679 votes, 84 more than the runner-up couple.

The competing couples were (in the order of appearance):

1. Zurab Kikabidze and Olena Butko
2. Oleg Negrov and Daria Chesnokova
3. Illya Sydorenko and Yulia Okropiridze
4. Anton Perevodchik and Daria Dovgaliova
5. Andrei Ivanov and Anastasia Shanina
6. Vitaliy Zagoruiko and Ganna Priadkina

Illya Sydorenko and Yulia Okropiridze have been training together forthree years. They are masters of sports of Ukraine in sport-dances. In 2005 2006 they became the finalists of the Ukrainian Championship on the programme of 10 dances. They were semi finalists on international competition in Warsaw (Poland), Riga (Latvia), Kaunas (Lithuania) and got the second prize in Minsk (Belarus).

Illya Sydorenko is a sport master of Ukraine on sport dances. He has graduated from Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, the department of direction and choreography, the profession – ballroom choreography. Yulia Okropiridze is a first-year student of Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, the department of direction and choreography, the profession ballroom choreography.

Ukraine will be one of the 16 countries to take part in the first edition of the Eurovision Dance Contest on 1st September. The show will take place in London, United Kingdom, hosted by Graham Norton. The other competing countries are:

• Denmark
• Germany
• Finland
• Greece
• Ireland (represented by Nicola Byrne & Mick Donegan)
• Lithuania
• Netherlands
• Austria
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russia
• Sweden (Cissi Ehrling & Martin Lidberg )
• Switzerland
• Spain
• United Kingdom