I wish I could dance on ice, I have enough problems walking on it! (Dancing on Ice)

Member Name: leanne8686

Product:	Dancing on Ice
Date:	02/03/09 (222 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: everything

Disadvantages: nothing

The best reality TV show in my opinion.
I adore the show; the ice-dancing, the music, the lighting, the beautiful dresses, Torville and Dean...everything!


Dancing on Ice started in early 2006, so we are now on the 4th series of the hit show.
The winners so far -
2006: Gaynor Faye dancing with Daniel Whiston.
2007: Kyran Bracken with Melanie Lambert.
2008: Suzanne Shaw with Matt Evers.


Dancing on Ice 2009- Series 4
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Dancing on Ice is on ITV Sunday evenings, the time varies from week to week but is usually sometime around 7pm for an hour and a half.

The series kicked off in January of this year with 13 celebrities, 6 women and 7 men.
The first 2 shows of series 4 were split into the different sexes; boys the first week, girls the second week and then every show from then on featured every celebrity.

The show is the idea of Olympic winning Ice dancers Jane Torville and Christopher Dean; they choreograph the routines for each star and coach them through the learning process.
Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby actually present the show, always in sparkly suits and dresses which I look forward to seeing every week!

The celebrity 'skaters' skate with a professional who they always seem to get very close to as they spend so much time together. The skaters at the beginning of the series this year were-
--The Boys.
Todd Carty (Eastenders actor) and partner Susie Lipanova
Jeremy Edwards (Holby City actor) and partner Darya Nucci
Graeme Le Saux (footballer) with partner Kristina Lenko
Ellery Hanley (former rugby player) with Frankie Poultney
Donal MacIntyre(TV presenter) with Florentine Houdiniere
Ray Quinn (singer and actor) with Maria Filippov
Michael Underwood (TV presenter) with Melanie Lambert

--The Girls.
Gemma Bissix (Eastenders actress) with partner Andrei Lipanov
Coleen Nolan (Former singer, TV presenter) with Stuart Widdall
Roxanne Pallett (Emmerdale actress) with Daniel Whiston
Melinda Messenger (Former page 3 model) with Fred Palascak
Zoe Salmon (Blue Peter presenter) with Matt Evers
Jessica Taylor (was in Liberty X) with Pavel Aubrecht.

Next week is the quarter final and so there are only 5 celebrities left!
These are: Ray Quinn- the sure winner, he scored all 6's two weeks ago and seems a natural ice skater! Donal Mcintyre- My favourite, he gets better every week and is trying so hard, Coleen Nolan- I have nothing against her but it's not fair that she's still there, rubbish and always get low scores from the judges, Zoe Salmon: Keeps getting great scores but then being in the skate off, not popular with the public I don't really like her, quite boring and finally Jessica Taylor: Good skater but always making a fuss about her injuries while the others just battle on.

My favourite professional skater is Frankie Poultney, she's gorgeous and the best female skater by far. So cute but with an attitude too! She partnered Ellery Hanley and I was sad to see them go.
She made it to the final last year though as she was with Chris Fountains.
Frankie always seems to have the nicest dresses too :)

I watch the show partly for the gorgeous costumes, all spangly and sparkly and shiny! And that's just the men lol.
The only downside to their appearances is the amount of fake tan they wear, all the skaters rival Oompa Loompas, the men and women!


How the show works
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Every week Chris and Jane choreograph the celebrities a routine, they have 1 week to learn and perfect it and then have to perform it in the studio on a Sunday evening. The skating routines get longer and more complicated each week!

Most weeks there is a 'required element' which the judges mark the skaters on, this week it was Prop week so they had to incorporate a prop; either a hat, chair, feather boa or cane into their routine seamlessly. Other weeks it has been to perform a spin (not the technical term) or backwards skating etc.

The judges "The Ice Panel" is made up from former ice dancers- Robin Cousins, Nicky Slater, Karen Barber (also coach) along with dance expert Jason Gardiner and former west-end star Ruthie Henshall. At the end of each routine the judges score the stars out of 6 and give their comments and criticism.
At the end of the show the phonelines are opened for the public to vote to save their favourite celebrity, these votes are then added to the judges scores (each is equal to 50% of the overall result). This is fair as everyone gets to have a say, sometimes ice-skaters are really unpopular with the judges which makes the public feel sorry for them and vote or vice versa, this is why Coleen is still in the running even though she has consistently got the lowest judges scores every week and Zoe Salmon has been in the skate off despite having some of the highest judges scores (a 6 last night and still in the skate off!)

The results show is on ITV about an hour after the main show and the two stars with the lowest votes/score combined have to skate again "The skate off", the ice panel then chooses which star they wish to save.

Every week one celebrity skater and their partner are sent home.

The aim of every skater involved is to dance the legendary Bolero (made famous by Jane and Christophers all 6's routine in the Winter Olympics) which they will get the opportunity to do if they reach the grand final.


After the show finishes, Jane Torville, Christopher Dean, the stars and professional skaters go on tour around the country. This year the dancing on ice tour will be at in Manchester (as will I) Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle, Birmingham, Belfast, Wembley and the O2.

As I said I'm going to see the tour on the 19th April at the M.E.N arena and I can't wait, I'm sure i'll write a review when I come back :)

Summary: I dream of being an ice-dancer :)