International adjudicator praises creativity and passion of Gibraltar’s young dancers

Sixteen years after his last visit as an adjudicator, International Dance Festival judge Dr Nathan James has praised Gibraltar’s young performers for their creativity, passion and technical strength, saying the Rock is “on a par” with much larger countries when it comes to competitive dance.

The experienced and much sought-after dance teacher and adjudicator spoke to the Chronicle during a break in the festival schedule, and reflected on how much Gibraltar and its dance scene have evolved since he was last on the Rock.

He began by noting how Gibraltar itself has changed over the years.

“It’s changed. There's some things I don't remember at all, but the airport I do remember, and obviously that's completely changed. I can't believe how built up it is now.”

“You've got this incredible Spanish heritage, but then there's British road signs, and its phone boxes and postboxes. So it's this really interesting kind of dichotomy of England and Spain coming together, which is nice.”

Here on the Rock to adjudicate this year’s festival, his week began with the dancers’ called on to improvise, followed by judging the groups and solo performances.

“The competition's been great. We've just done two evenings. So the first evening was the improvisation sections, which is where I select the music for the different age groups,” he said, explaining that the score is not revealed before the performance.

“It was sent over and no one had heard it until they played it for the first time.”

“It's incredible to see, from the youngest dancers right through to the oldest, there's such an incredible range of talent.”

When asked how things have changed in the 16 years since his last adjudication here, he reflected on the nature of competitive dance itself.

“Dance is its own thing, and the choreography for it is very stylised and very specific, and it doesn't necessarily correlate to the outside professional world of dance. And I don't mean that as a negative, it's just its thing.”

Competitive dance, he said, can sometimes feel like a checklist of things the dancers think that they need to show.

“The irony is, as I often say when I'm adjudicating, there is no magic tick list. We don't need to see these things.”

What impressed him in Gibraltar, was how far beyond that the groups had gone.

“What I was blown away with last night [Wednesday] particularly, was just the creativity.”

“I mean, all those groups that I saw, there wasn't a single thing that was the same. So the ideas were so brilliantly thought out, so creative,” he said.

Comparing Gibraltar to other places where he adjudicates, he noted both technical strength and artistic sensibility.

“You see every country, every area, has its specialisms. And I can see here kind of jazz, contemporary show dance are very much their kind of style.”

“I think the techniques are really strong, and there's some nice grounding in that. And I also think the dancers are quite impassioned in what they do.”

And authenticity in the performance is key.

“The thing for me is always remembering that there has to be some truth in what you're doing.”

Despite the pressures of competition, he said Gibraltar’s dancers compared favourably with those he sees elsewhere, including in the UK, where he has already completed several festivals this year.

“Particularly, they're on a par, and it's great.”

Asked what message he would give to young dancers and soloists starting out, he said that for him “we always have to separate things. You need to know why you dance. How does it make you feel?”
“It's a competition, and that's a very different feeling. But it can't always be about the winning.”

“You've got to try your best but, ultimately, that choice is taken out of your hands. That's another person, me in this instance, that makes that choice.”

Instead, he urged dancers to focus on the quality of their own performance and on learning.

“What you've got to be able to do is walk off the stage and go ‘yeah, I'm really happy with that performance’. That's what counts,” he said.

“If you're a really reflective dancer, that thinking dancer is very rare, but that thinking dancer can go ‘I didn't quite know that. I just need to work on that a little bit more’.”

“That, for me, is really, really important, because it is a competition. Never forget that, but it should always be a learning experience.”

Those who focus only on winning, he warned, risk losing the joy of dance.

“The dancers, for me, who won't always succeed will lose the joy for it. There are the dancers that just keep going ‘I'm going to win. I want to win’. And actually, you're not getting out of it what you could be, because you become very closed.”

“Even when you get feedback from a professional, if you don't take that feedback on, then I always go ‘well, why are you doing it then?’”

“Because everybody's going to have an opinion, and they're always going to be conflicting opinions.”

“That's the world we live in. It's subjective. But take all of those little bits of information and use them, and that, for me, helps you grow as a dancer and as a performer.”

Was any performance particularly memorable?

“I think the group piece that we had yesterday from Mediterranean Dance School.”

It was a kind of graveyard spooky kind of Thriller gone 2026, and that was really powerful last night because of the dancers’ energy and their commitment.”

“It was quite frenetic in its energy. And that, for me, was very powerful as a performance, because they were there, in that moment, which that was really, really wonderful.”

Finally Dr James said, “I'm just very honoured, very grateful to be back here. And I particularly want to thank Seamus [Byrne] and his team… they've made me feel so welcome.”

“They've brought us here like family, and everybody I've met has just been so wonderfully open. So it's a joy to be back.”