Stylos win all group sections and three top awards at GIDF 2017

13 year old Italian dancer Marek Pisanu from Danza Damaris was the overall winner in the 15th edition of the Gibraltar National Dance Festival. The young dancer performed his solo piece in the gala night of the festival on Saturday at the John Mackintosh Hall Theatre where he obtained top marks winning the main prize for the most promising dancer and the M.O. Productions Bursary Award.
The bursary finalists included seven dancers selected by this year’s adjudicator. The finalists were from Gibraltar and Spain as well as Italy.
Jodie Clark this year’s adjudicator felt the winner was a young man who showed great potential for the future.
But overall it was the Stylos Dance Studio who took the most awards and certainly proved to be their night – in solos, groups and choreography as Lilian and Lauren Montero took the Best Choreography Award. This was for the Stylos Dance Studio and the Adult Group entry ‘After the Storm’ performed on Saturday’s gala night. The Best Female Dancer award was presented to Janis Jackson also from Stylos Dance Studio. Faye Gomez also from Stylos Dance Studio will also be representing Gibraltar in Sussex after winning the M.O. Productions Sussex Award.
In all group pieces – children, junior and senior, local dancers from the Stylos Dance Studio also took all three top awards.
This year’s Best Male Dancer was awarded to Nathan Villalba from Art in Movement.
The festival saw 92 soloists competing over the three days but only seven made it through to the final night and bursary section.
In all 217 dancers competed in the competition from England, Gibraltar, Italy and Spain in a variety of dance categories