It all began when the young German dancer, Korinna Soehn was in London in

1972

Among other English dancers she also met a dance teacher who told her about the All England Dance competition for children. Korinna Soehn was fascinated about the existence of a dance competition for children, something she had never heard of before.
She knew about the international dance competitions for young dancers who were about to start their professional career like "Prix de Lausanne" or the competitions in Jackson, USA, in Moscow, Russia, and in Varna, Romania.
In

1973

she took two girls from her mother’s ballet school to London to participate in this dance competition for children. They became first in duet, and in solo they won a first and an second place. Little 8 year old Patrizia even won the challenge cup for the best ballet solo of all age groups.
This was a sensation and went through the press not only in Munich but in all Germany. In

1974 and 75

she returned to London with 4 children from her mother’s ballet school, and the girls were similarly successful.

This was the beginning.
In

1980

Korinna Soehn gave up her career as a dancer and took over her mother’s ballet school after having had intensive studies in pedagogic, and psychology, as well as the training methods of Waganowa and of the Royal Academy of Dancing.
In addition to this she studies languages and speaks German, English, Spanish, French, and Greek. Recently she has started studying Russian.
In

1979

students from her ballet school were the first ones in Germany to successfully enter for mayor exams of the RAD. Later, however she did not continue with the RAD teaching methods but went back to Waganowa system, in which she was originally brought up.

The idea of having dance competitions for children still rumoured in Korinna Soehn’s head.
In sports young athletes don’t start with Olympic Games, but from early childhood on they have to go through numerous local competitions until they finally qualify for an international one. Yet so far young German dance student did not have any opportunities of these kinds. No wonder that they never did well in the big international dance competitions.
In

1982

Korinna Soehn called together a small number of people who were just as enthusiastic as she was, and together they founded the Ballettfoerderkreis Muenchen e.V., a charity association for the benefit of dancing children. Since then their idea has been to support children who love to dance, no matter whether in the end the would become professional dancers or not.
In

1983

The first German Dance Competition took place in a small theatre in the North of Munich. Korinna Soehn asked the All England Dance Competition for permission to copy their rules, and the other members were busy finding as many addresses of dance schools as possible in all over Germany. 150 children up to the age of 16 years took part, coming from 20 different schools from as far North as Moelln and Hanover, from as far West as Aachen, and from the very South.
They repeated the German Dance Competition first every two years, and then every three years.
Gradually more and more dance schools participated, and the German Dance Competition became well known in the whole country as well as in Austria, Switzerland and Denmark.
At the moment an average of 800 dance students participate every year, coming form about 60 different dance schools.
In

2000

one of the adjudicators in the German Dance Competition was a Greek dance teacher, former member of the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. She was so fascinated about the idea of having a dance competition for children that she asked for help in organising such a competition in Greece as well.
So in

2001 and 02

Korinna Soehn and her team organised the Hellas Dance Festival, an international dance competition for children in Piraeus, just outside Athens, in Greece. This is where the name of the website www.hellasdance.de came from.
Korinna Soehn promoted this competition in Germany and Austria, and schools from these countries participated to make the competition more attractive for the Greek dance schools.
This competition has continued to take place in Piraeus, but now Korinna Soehn’s help is not needed any more.
At the German Dance Competition in

2003

schools from six different countries took part. These were Germany, Austria, Estonia, Russia, Moldavia, China.
At the teachers’ meeting on the last day of the competition they all agreed that this is no German Dance Competition any longer, but it has turned into an international competition.
Thus they decided for

2004

to have a German Dance Competition as well as a Dance World Cup. This first Dance World Cup for children and junior dance students up to the age of 17 years took place in a beautiful theatre in Fuerstenfeldbruck near Munich in Germany. Schools from the following countries participated:
Germany, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, China, Nigeria, Mexico.
It was decided that from then on the Dance World Cup should take place every year in a different city in a different country. At a meeting during the days of the competition representatives from all participating countries had to decide where the Dance World Cup should take place in the following year.
Portugal and Poland both applied for

2005

Wroclaw in Poland won and hosted the Dance World Cup in that year.
At the meeting of the representatives of the countries the Dance World Cup Association (DWCA) was founded. There should only be one member per country, preferably not an individual but an association that organises national dance competitions. Such members were then in
Germany, Austria, Portugal, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Nigeria, Mexico, Estonia
For

2006

Portugal again applied for hosting the Dance World Cup, and everybody agreed. So in that year the competition took place in a very beautiful, new theatre in Faro, Portugal.
For the first time three schools from Canada participated as well as schools from France.
For

2007

France, Russia, and Ukraine applied for hosting the Dance World Cup. In that year the competition took place in Jalta, Ukraine. In addition to the other countries Latvia, Japan and Uzbekistan entered dance students for the first time.
For

2008

Russia, Austria, and Canada applied for hosting the Dance World Cup, and Canada won. So the competition will take place in Vancouver, Canada.
For the first time young adult dance students (yet not professional dancers) will be admitted as well.
In addition to the previous countries several other African countries announced their participation already as well as England.
For

2009

Jersey applied, and the Dance World Cup will take place in St. Helier, Jersey, Channel Islands.