WEEK 6 – DANCING ON ICE

THIS MORNING - Lisa, Philip, Matt, Fern and me.

WEEK 6 – DANCING ON ICE

There was controversy over the skate off. Pressure on the skaters was showing up and forcing errors.

Judging is not getting easier and the skate offs were awful to have to judge.

KIERAN & MEL showed that he is a natural comedian and the way he was able to skate out and interpret his routine was great fun. On screen we loose the impression of speed and often, the faster you go the more out of line or ragged things can look, you have to be much more precise on the turns and movements at speed and in exact unison with your partner. But he is going so fast I thought Mel had to skate out to keep up with him at one point! KIERAN IS confident in the lifts, covering much more ice than any skaters and with this energy that fits the music. Goodness knows how he will cope with a slower romantic tune! We shall see.

EMILY & DANIEL I think Emily is getting better every week. However it’s clear to see that it’s tough for her to let go of the things that have gone wrong the week before. Sometimes you get into the expectancy that something will go wrong. And then of course it does. Funny how that happens. Until the end of the routine I thought Emily and Daniel were doing a fine job. Then came the mistakes and with those they should have been in the skate off. Once you get nervous and rise up on straight legs you are lost in skating – the flow stops, this is what is happening and also a tensing up when things don’t quite work. It’s a mind game for her now. We need to see her ‘not caring’ so much and letting the blades flow. Confidence makes a difference… Gaining and showing that is Emily’s challenge.

LISA & MATT Once again Lisa’s brilliant presentation skills shone. Matt is a great partner for her and presents her superbly. In the air in the lifts and when doing some of the transitions she is poised and assured and impressive. Strong dance ability helps the overall look of the piece. Always though with Lisa it is the underlying skating skills that cause me to hold back my marks. Lisa’s skating has not progressed as fast as many of the other celebs. Some of whom have excellent showmanship skills others who are less impressive in this area but are skating out. This lack of basic skating ability, whilst covered by Matt to an untrained eye, was still of concern to me. This added to a slip at the end of the programme and difficulty with the under arm rollovers caused me to have a lower score.

LEE & FRANKIE Confidence shows and for me Lee’s stance and the relaxed expression he brought to the piece added a new dimension. He is dancing more and more ‘with Frankie’ (rather than alongside her) which is a big step forward. There are still jerky moments in the skating but there is a surety there that was new. I’m after good skating edges and dancing and expression combined. Lee is getting the hang of his arms a little more (lot further to go) and that, along with his potential to be the best ‘natural’ skater here shows more scope for next week.

CLAIRE & ANDREI Back on form. Skating out to a packed programme, giving more dance energy and superb posture and strength in lifts. Very strong overall package. I love Claire’s go for it attitude and the overall package she delivers with Andrei. She hasn't quite got the finesse and showbiz pizzazz that Lisa has and that is what I think she has to add to be right up there for me.

DUNCAN & MARIA He is able to dance and present as a showman. Duncan is he best of the men in this regard at this stage for me. Going out of line in the flip over lift I thought he was going to head off the ice with Maria! That was a scary moment for me watching (I think Maria's heart would have stopped0 – but well held sir being the result. He did not look too steady in places. This in part is because he’s going for it, which I applaud. You have to give all you’ve got in this competition. Maria, as for all the pro skaters here is doing a superb job. The skating needs to be developed more, the stronger the base platform the more you can do on it. How much Duncan can develop this will be key in the next few weeks for me.

SKATE OFF
Hmmm…. On the skating performances Emily and Daniel should have been in the skate offs. LISA and MATT and DUNCAN and MARIA being there meant we would loose someone who had skated well enough to stay in that week. Of course you never know how the skate offs can go. (Stefan v John last year being a case in point…) For the record I had LISA 5th and EMILY 6th in position. They were my lowest placed two.

We had two excellent performances in the skate offs. Duncan skated much stronger than for the competition itself. My decider is always, if I find other things equal the skating ability to dance on ice is the decider. So, whilst the presentation of both couples was of a very high standard, Duncan’s skating was stronger, and this is the tiebreaker for me, so I saved him.

LISA is on the arena tour to come in April so she is not out of the loop. Keeps Matt busy too!

Enjoy week 7 – PROPS WEEK. Remember Stefan last year with his broom. He was brilliant what’s going to happen this time?

Love

Nicky