MY Tupelo Takes Ukrainian Mass Dancing Format 'Go Dance!' For U.S.

COLOGNE, Germany - Michael Yudin's MY Tupelo Entertainment has acquired North American rights to the hit Ukranian mass dancing format Go Dance!, in which teams of hundreds of dancers from different cities compete to be named their country's dance capital.

Ukrainian producers Studio Kvartal-95 and Russia's Star Media Group inked the deal with My Tupelo to develop the format for the American market. It is the first time a Ukrainian format has been picked up for the U.S.. Yudin and Star Media's William Peck and Maria Grechishnikova negotiated the deal, with help from CAA.

My Tupelo, whose on-air formats include Pros vs. Joes on Spike TV and Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, plan to co-produce the U.S. version of Go Dance! with Nigel Lythgoe Productions.

The original Go Dance! show airs on Inter TV in Ukraine. On the show, teams of dancers, often numbering up to five hundred each, prepare and rehearse a dance number with a professional choreographer. The teams then face off in a two-hour live dance competition, staged every week in Maydan, the main square in the Ukranian capital, Kiev. A jury and viewers at home vote on the winners, who receive a cash prize and win the title of dance capital for their home town.

“Go Dance! is a dance show unparalleled in scale. The show is close in style to flash mobs, so popular nowadays, and I’m confident of its further success," said Vladimir Zelenskiy, general producer for the show on Inter TV and creative director at Studio Kvartal-95.

Go Dance! has been a ratings hit in Ukraine, which has a long tradition of folk dancing.

Star Media said it is in negotiations for a French deal for Go Dance! and will be shopping the format to international broadcasters at the MIP-TV television market in Cannes in April.