The Judging Panel

Hotshot Dance Competition features a panel of three industry professionals, each bringing extensive experience and expertise across a wide range of dance styles. Each judge will complete individual score sheets, scoring each performance based on;

• Technique

• Performance

• Choreography

• Musicality

Our judges will assess each performance based on their expert knowledge of the specific dance genre and technique. They have a strong understanding of the technical, performance, content, and musicality requirements unique to each style. To ensure fair and consistent results, judges will also consider the variety of dance styles within each section.

Vicky Wyatt

Vicky trained at the Miskin Theatre and Performers College before entering into the professional dance industry where she had a successful and extensive career with Carnival cruise lines.

Vicky is now the Head of Dance and Musical Theatre at The Miskin and takes great pride in developing the young and aspiring performers that train at the college each year.

Emma Rogers

Emma works worldwide as a Director and Choreographer and has had shows headline in London, USA, Australia, Monte Carlo, Japan and Canada to name just a few.

She was nominated for a Broadway World Award for Best Choreography in Las Vegas for the production ‘Dancing Queen’ at the Planet Hollywood Casino. Most recently Emma directed and choreographed ‘Christmas Wonderland’ at the Orb Theatre, Tokyo, ‘Putting On The Ritz’ and ‘Jersey Nights’ for National tours of Australia, Cirque Extreme USA & Canada, ‘Christmas Wonderland’ USA National Tour and ‘Christmas on Ice’ in Canada. Emma also recently Directed and Choreographed ‘Keep Dancing’ UK Tour, starring Strictly Professionals and Winners. She has choreographed for Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor and works extensively at Performers College one of the leading Performing Arts Colleges in the UK.

Amanda Matea

Amanda trained at the Royal Ballet School (Senior Associate) and Laine Theatre Arts, where she gained a BA Hons in Musical Theatre. She then completed the Fellowship Program at the Alvin Ailey School in NYC on the Talley Beatty Scholarship, where she performed works by Alvin Ailey, Christopher Huggins, Pedro Ruiz, Donald Byrd and Hope Boykin.

Amanda danced with Lines Ballet, Opus Dance Theatre, Battery Dance Company and Thomas Ortiz Dance. She was fortunate to perform for the inaugural celebrations of President Obama at the White House, at the esteemed Jacobs Pillow and on the European tour with Post Modern Jukebox.

Upon returning to the UK, Amanda has taught Contemporary at the Royal Ballet School (White Lodge), London Theatre Runway, Laine Theatre Arts and the McOnie Company.

Amanda is currently Head of Operations at Laine Theatre Arts, whilst maintaining a creative, interdisciplinary practice in choreography, recently choreographing for The Writer, A New Musical, Black Rabbit Projects, and Sandi Tosvig's Christmas Spectacular at the Royal Albert Hall. It is Amanda's greatest pleasure to support the next generation of artists in their journey of becoming well rounded innovators of the future

Sam Stanley

Sam Stanley started dancing at the age of 14 and then went onto graduate from Bird College in 2010. Sam then went on to perform all over the world in Theatre, TV and Film. Credits include - Little Mix, Take That, Craig David, Robbie Williams, Louisa Johnson, BGT, X Factor, Royal Variety Performance, Jingle Bell Ball, Rocket Man Movie, Death on the Nile movie, Pirates of the Caribbean, Judy Garland Original Cast. Sam Stanley is now an established international award winning choreographer working in Theatre, Film and Corporate events. Sam is very excited to be joining the HotShot judging panel and can’t wait to see all the talent!

Ellie Beaumont

Ellie trained at the Arts Educational Schools, London.
Upon graduating, she immediately began her career dancing all over the world, including long contracts with ‘Spirit of the Dance’ in some of the most prestigious theatres in Las Vegas, South Africa, Branson, Monaco and the UK.

Her West End credits include ‘Pagliacci’ with Placido Domingo and Franco Zeffirelli, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and ‘His Daughter’s Tribute’ at the London Palladium – a celebration of Fred Astaire in which Ellie appeared alongside Cyd Charrise, Ann Miller and Jane Powell. She also performed in ‘Voices of Promise’ at The Millennium Dome.

Ellie was also a much sought after Assistant Choreographer. She assisted Olivier Award winning choreographer Bill Deamer for many years, including the hugely successful UK tour of ‘The Boyfriend’.
She has also taken on the role of Dance Captain and dancer in many pantomimes all over the UK..
Most recently, Ellie appeared in Mr Selfridge for ITV.

Matt Walker

Matt Walker completed his professional training at the Urdang Academy and is now an international choreographer, movement director, dancer and teacher with his weekly Ombrascura Dance company class, taking place at The Manor Studios, London.

Matts combined performance and choreographic credits include The XFactor, The Brit Awards, Chris Brown, Cheryl, One Direction, Mariah Carey, DLush, Giggs, Conor Maynard, Jack Maynard, Joesph Reuben, UEFA, Burberry, Paco Rabanne, Samsung, Spotify, L’Oreal, ASDA, Argos, Sunkissed, Sky Sports, A League of Their Own, Britannia High, High School Musical, Cannes film festival, Wilderness festival EA Sports, Rambert and many more.

Matt is very passionate about training the next generation of dancers, teaching all over the world as a guest artist and at many of the UK top dance studios and colleges including; Base Studios, Bird College, Stella Mann College, Italia Conti performing arts, The Urdang Academy, Guildford school of Acting, MEPA, Pineapple Dance Studios, Hurtwood House, The Urban Dance School (UDS) & Ombrascura Dance Company.

Ljay Halliday

My names is Ljay Halliday. I’m a Scottish Dancer and choreographer. I am a graduate of the Urdang Academy, London. where I was a full scholarship recipient. I’m also a proud recipient of scholarships from; Broadway Dance Centre, New York, La Luna dance centre, Italy aswell as The Institute Of The Arts Barcelona. I’ve been so lucky to perform worldwide. Including performing for the Royal Family of Bahrain, closing Paris fashion week in the Louis Vuitton Foundation and performing in LA + lots of other events worldwide. I also opened the prestigious Le Calssique de Danse awards.

I’ve choreographed for some of the top dance colleges in UK including Addict, Artsed and Urdang. I’ve had the pleasure to also assist creative choreographer Lucy Banfield on various projects over the past years. I was Dance Captain in “Kinky Boots” I then moved on to be casted in “Saturday Night Fever” I’ve just previously been on Britains Got Talent 2024 as a solo dance act and reached the semi finals, Top 3. I currently teach and create freelance.

Rossana Lorusso

Rossana started her professional training at Laine Theatre Arts and graduated in 2004 with a Dance/Musical Theatre Diploma.

Rossana is a well established commercial dancer, her television credits include: X-Factor (ITV), Britain's got Talent (ITV), Strictly Come Dancing (BBC), The Brit Awards (ITV), The Friday Night Project (C4), Any Dream Will Do (BBC), The Paul O'Grady Show (C4), Got to Dance (ITV), Disco Mania (ITV), Abba Mania (ITV), Dame Edna Show (ITV), Armstrong and Miller Show (ITV), Bust A Move (MTV), Avenue To The Stars (LWT), Pop World (T4), Audience with Westlife (ITV), Kayne West backing dancer, dancer for Busted, McFly, Basement Jaxx, The Hurts and a featured dancer for many TV appearances with Olly Murs.

Liam Swattridge

Liam trained at Performers College in Essex graduating in July 2014 with a Diploma in Dance Theatre. He holds his Licentiate qualification in both Tap and Modern and DDI in Ballet. He is also a qualified teacher in Acrobatic Arts and has been teaching the world renowned syllabus for 10 years now.

Liam was part of the England team that took part in the IDO World Tap Championships in 2011 and 2012. He was lucky enough to captain the team in 2012 and brought home silver medals both years. He has also appeared on Sky 1's 'Got To Dance' where he got through to the semi finals. Liam has performed at Wembley in the FA Cup Final 2013 and appeared in the film 'Cuban Fury', released in 2014. He was also a feature dancer in the film 'Make Way' in 2018 and took part in the 10 year gala show of Tap Attack in 2019 too. Other performance credits also include 'Move It' and the BBC Dance Proms.