Report on the World Tap Dance Championships in Prague, 22–26 October 2025
Like last year, this year’s Tap Dance World Championships took place at the Unyp Arena in Prague. From Wednesday, 22 October to Sunday, 26 October 2025, around 1,700 participants from 21 countries competed for titles in various categories. The Swiss team was represented by 142 participants, who presented a total of 58 choreographies.
For some of the children, it was their first appearance at a world championship. This meant that the tension was particularly high, as was the anticipation of being able to perform on such a big stage in front of a large international audience. Unfortunately, it was not enough to reach the finals, but Ronja Habegger achieved a very good 10th place in the solo girls category.
Solo Female Children Ronja Habegger
The juniors also provided plenty of suspense. Several dancers made it through to the semi-finals in this category. In the Solo Female category, Nives Tamarut, Junior 1, achieved an excellent 16th place and Bethan Yorke, Junior 2, came in 13th. Oliver Schüpbach was the only dancer to reach the final in this category. He finished the competition in an excellent 7th place in the Junior 2 category.
Solo Juniors 1 Nives Tamarut Solo Juniors 2 Oliver Schüpbach
The exciting competition continued with the Adult 1 category. The competition was exceptionally strong throughout the entire event. The standard of the dancers is particularly high among the adults. All countries performed outstanding, beautiful and demanding dances. This made the jury’s task of selecting the semi-finalists and ultimately the finalists all the more difficult. There were 45 participants in the Solo Female category. The Swiss women’s good results were therefore particularly pleasing. Federica Barbieri and Florence Dreier reached the semi-finals, where they finished in an excellent 8th and 10th place. In the men’s competition, Edwin Berchtold reached the final, as he did last year, and finished the competition in an excellent 5th place. The excitement continued in the duos competition. Here too, Switzerland reached the final, as it did last year with Edwin Berchtold and Florence Dreier. With a very demanding choreography, the two danced their way to third place and were awarded the bronze medal for Switzerland. There was also a medal in the trio category. The three dancers Nubia Buchli, Mila Martic and Isabel Reinecke from Backstage Studio in Zurich, who also reached the final for the second time in a row, fought their way to a well-deserved third place with their beautiful choreography Solfegietto. Another place in the final was secured in the group category. The dancers from Dance Studio Borak in Winterthur took a very respectable fourth place. The dancers from Centre de Danse OR in Nyon narrowly missed out on the final. They finished in an unfortunate seventh place, immediately followed by the dancers from Tanzwerk Basel, who took eighth place.
Duo Adults Edwin Berchtold – Florence Dreier Trio Solfegietto
The Adults 2 category was unusually well represented this year. For the first time, a total of 19 groups were registered in the Groups Adult 2 category. The three Swiss groups finished the competition in 8th, 9th and 16th place. In the Formation category, they even danced their way to an excellent 4th place.
This year’s World Championships were once again characterised by a great deal of camaraderie. Dancers from different countries cheered each other on, shared their joy and exchanged ideas. Contacts and friendships were made that will be maintained throughout the year. This is one of the qualities that makes the tap dancing scene so valuable and special! The full results can be found at https://www.ido-dance.com/calendar/results/result-details/?cid=2184.