Totally agree with this, Caro. On the tour last year, Sean and Jodeyne's routine with Lukacz and Alexandra was one of the best I've ever seen - brilliant stuff.

This "balance" thing is a bit of a nonsense. Skis are wider than your foot and about as long as you are tall. Balancing on blades is not the same thing at all. People overbalance on skis when they first learn because they can't move their feet very much in comparison to standing without skis. It's easy to move your feet on skates, although balance is difficult for different reasons.

If anyone had an unfair advantage was Jorgie, being a classically trained dancer.

I really can not see the connection with Skiing and Ice Dancing, apart from both being Winter Olympic Sports

Love it !

Next minute we'll have people complaining that they trained on the Nintendo wii or played NHL 2011 on the playstation as unfair advantages

Ray Quinn was a champion ballroom dancer when he took part and he won!

I don't have any problem with Chemmy being a skier, it isn't the same as being a skater and its not like she's done much skiing in the last year and a half is it

You mean like having Evan Lysacek on Dancing With The Stars? His background as an ice skater didn't prevent him being voted into second place when he appeared on the US version of Strictly.

Chemmy will get votes if she skates well, is entertaining and has a story that resonates with the GBP. Yup, I think she will get votes...

Chemmy is recovering from a serious accident, this is sort of therapy for her, as well as likely to be entertaining for us, as she seems pretty good at basic skating, even if she is currently (and understandably) scared of landing on the leg from a jump. Her personality and musicality on ice are/were unknowns when she was invited.

Ray Quinn had not ice skated before, other than a few times at his not very local rink - like most of us as teenagers - but he had done a lot of inline roller blading. He was a dancer, ballroom champion when he was about 12.

Chris and one other at least had played ice hockey, several had short training for previous ice dancing on TV, a lot of actors have dance training, sports people are fit and competitive.......

They are not likely to turn people down because they may be good at skating are they?

What do you want to watch, a load of duffers on ice?

Haha

Loved the pairing, Sean is brilliant one of the best male skaters they were physically well matched and did a great job, hope they do well.

The advantage Chemmy will have as a skier and it did show, is she will be used to using edges and also on being down in her knees which will generate speed. However I would say this is only the equivalent of the many female contestants who have had dance training and should in no way mean she shouldn't be in the competition.

I don't care about advantages, she was just really good, I'd rather have fast, exciting skaters like her rather than Mark

Ray had not played ice hockey - in fact he had barely been on ice at all. However, we had been a junior latin dance champion and had also doe quite a bit of roller-blading. Chris Fountain had been a keen ice-hockey player though as had David Seaman. David Seaman had also won a celebrity ice-dance competition on BBC. Sam Attwater had skated a lot in his teens but had never had lessons.

I thought Chemmy and Sean were brilliant. Watching Sean in the opening routine you could tell he is amazing - my eyes rarely left him.

Chemmy's advantages are that she's fit and fearless but as has been pointed out others have different advantages.

Tought she was great tonight - I enjoyed her & Sean's performance best. If she can work on her finesse she'll be a real contender.

I always hope that sportspeople do well and knowing of Chemmy's injuries and fight for recovery I was willing her to do well. Sadly though I felt she was overmarked.

Ice hockey players who have not used normal figure skates struggle as the blades are slightly different and the main difference, which causes huge problems, is the toe-pick. This generally leads to hockey players falling over!
I remember, as a youngster, trying to skate on hockey skates, and it seemed a world apart. A bit like when I tried to ski on downhill skis - I'm a cross country skier.
So even though the disciplines are similar, just a change of equipment does take some getting used to.
And ski-ing and skating are really not alike.

Edited for typo reasons!

Skiing and skating are in no way connected; Chemmy doesn't have an advantage just because she competes in winter sports.

Speaking of classical training, we'll be watching Jennifer with interest next week as she trained at the Royal Ballet School at White Lodge for a few years. Mind you, although ballet training is an advantage with regards to performing, lines, turnout etc., it's not a surety that it will help with the balance or actual skating.

My daughter is quite a serious ballet dancer but although she has no trouble balancing en pointe, put her in a pair of skates and she's more unsteady than Bambi.

To be fair most of us can balance - it's how we stay upright.