The Dance World Cup (DWC) 2024 took place from June 27th to July 6th with the participation of 54 countries at the Congress Centre in Prague. At national championships and through video qualifications, 9,500 out of 120,000 dancers ultimately qualified for the finals in Prague – a new record compared to 7,500 finalists in the previous year. The eight Swiss tap dancers were present for the first time as one team for the Swiss tap dance association SwissTap.
Part of the old town was closed off for the opening parade, creating a cheerful, colourful scene with flags, national costumes, team tracksuits and some wild singing. This was a great opportunity to get to know the Swiss participants from other dance styles as well as dancers from different continents and nations. Many selfies were taken, flags were exchanged, and everyone celebrated together.
The Swiss tap dancers had to get used to the new conditions of DWC compared to the IDO Championships: sticky dance floor instead of slippery wooden floor. In contrast to IDO, synchronisation, presentation and charisma are judged even more highly and there is only one round – so only one chance to show off your skills. However, the youngest Swiss tap dancers, Nives Tamarut and Sophie Vogel, quickly found the recipe for success and won silver and the runner-up title in the children’s duo category on Sunday.
On Sunday evening, the Swiss team was joined by further arrivals. At the same time, spirits rose and final training sessions were carried out improvising between other athletes’ acro routines. The team also took advantage of the great opportunity to watch other dance styles at world-class level and was very impressed.
On Tuesday, the new DWC junior duo with Delia Jost & Vince Bürki was in action and achieved an excellent 5th place in a strong category. The highlight of the day was the Solo Seniors category, where women and men compete in the same category at the DWC. The joy was immense when the silver medal was deservedly awarded to Alessia Roth and thus to Switzerland at the award ceremony. Fabio Guillelmon went one better and won the DWC World Champion title and the first Swiss gold medal with an incredible score of 99.6% – in the end, this was the highest score of the entire competition. He also received an invitation to perform in front of 2,700 spectators at the gala on Saturday, where selected first-place winners put on a world-class show for the audience. The Swiss double victory was celebrated in Prague’s Old Town on the legendary Charles Bridge and documented in pictures.
The next day, the small group “Oh Ye” achieved 5th place, and with the last start for SwissTap, the duo of Alessia Roth and Fabio Guillelmon took 4th place. With their strong performances and 3 medals in the national ranking, the Swiss tap dancers contributed to what was probably the best Swiss result in the history of the DWC. The many other Swiss dancers won 1 silver and 2 bronze medals, meaning that Switzerland travelled home very satisfied with 6 medals at the end – as a comparison: in 2023, Switzerland only won one silver medal of Fabio Guillelmon in total.
It was hard to say goodbye after the gala, because the Swiss tap dancers and parents had grown together to form a great team that supported each other. The cross-Swiss dance school choreographies were perceived as a great added value, which strengthened the sense of community among the Swiss. At the gala and in the dressing rooms, the dancers were approached by a wide variety of people about the great tap dancers from SwissTap.
We look forward to the Dance World Cup 2025!
Here are all the SwissTap results:
Children Solo:
15th place – Nives Tamarut
25th place – Sophie Vogel
Children Duo/Trio:
2nd place – Nives Tamarut & Sophie Vogel
Junior Solo:
5th place – Nubia Buchli
16th place – Vince Bürki
17th place – Delia Jost
Junior Duo:
5th place – Vince Bürki & Delia Jost
Adults Solo:
1st place – Fabio Guillelmon
2nd place – Alessia Roth
7th place – Morena Candido
Adults Duo:
4th place – Fabio Guillelmon & Alessia Roth
Adults Small Group:
5th place – “Oh Ye” (Alessia Roth, Vince Bürki, Delia Jost, Nubia Buchli, Fabio Guillelmon, Morena Candido)
11th place – “Rain” (Alessia Roth, Vince Bürki, Delia Jost, Nubia Buchli, Fabio Guillelmon, Nives Tamarut, Sophie Vogel)
