Does anyone else get bored by all the lifts incorporated in this year's routines. There seems to be lots more than usual.

The emphasis always seems to be in how difficult the lifts are and more lifts means less skating IMHO. They also encourage the audience to scream themselves silly.

Down with lifts I say.

I agree with you, but it's always been that way. Think back to Suzanne getting hammered for it.

Yeah there are far too many lifts, not enough focus on the celebrities being able to actually skate.

I agree, lifts, lifts and more lifts. I want more skating too.

I said in the main thread that when it comes to a lot of the women celebs they should call it "Lifted on Ice".

I've said it before, but I do miss Nicky Slater at times like this. He was the only one that called them out on it.

I am dreading the headbanger. I hate the constant lifts. :sleep:

Tonight there was quite an emphasis on skating out of contact,no?

For the male celebs but, if you blinked you would have missed the majority of the female celebs skating out of contact.

Yes, there are far too many lifts and hardly any skating by the female contestants.

Totally agree. And why do the male celebs never get any credit for doing lifts - after all, it takes much more skill to lift someone, keep you balance, and have the overall strength and stability. Being lifted (as the females so) hardly needs any skill at all in comparison.

Do away with lifts and let's see some lone skating ability.

I agree. The male celebs have to work so much harder - although I wouldn't include Chemmy or Georgie in that - they do seem to have good skating ability.

Do we get a skating skills test this year?

Yes but what I should have said was,the subject is being stressed.As I remember it even Heidi's VT seemed to be all about her needing that last vestige of physical contact in order to skate without actual physical assistance.

I agree, too many
I also agreed with Katarina about Chemmy, just wish she would skate more.

Hi. I totally agree with you on this and wanted also to prove a point to ITV's Viewer Services by writing them a e-mail regarding this and Dancing on Ice, so this is the reply that I received back from Mike from ITV's very own viewer services.


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I think th amount of lifts discourage the scared female celebs that can't dance to not dance becuase then they can just get lifted. And while I get that lifts can look nice (when done well) I think all the girl celebs (becuase they only get lifted) should be encourgae to skate more in the early weeks and then only given lifts when they've reached a certain level of skating. Becuase otherwise they are just allowing viewers to have a go a them and say that they are just being given the luxury of decorating up the fact that they can't balance or move on ice.

I would be hapy if no lifts were incorporated untilat least haf way through the series but I know others would say then that we'd just see rubbish dancers moving gingerly on the ice and that would't look as nice as lovely lifts. Maybe no above the waist lifts before at least halfway.

Apparently, according to another thread, even Alan Titchmarsh performed "a lift" on his show with Chemmy.


Why don't they just call it "Lifting On Ice" and be done with it,

Chemmy skates more and better than any other female contestant.

Being lifted isn't easy though. Ok the ones that Rosemary does are easy as she just sits on her partners knee, but doing things like a table top lift requires a lot of core strength. I can't hold that position off ice let alone if I was being spun around that high up.

How many of us have watched dirty dancing where the 'amater' dancer had to practise for weeks on end, including in water in order to acheive that lift

Oh believe me I know lifts aren't easy, the amount of time I've defended female celebs on Strictly in relation to being lifted or being lead in dance routines, I can't remeber. In a previous DOI thread I posted about lifts being work so I know they aren't easy but am aware that plenty of people still think the guy pro does all the work and the female goes up just by his elevation of her and that she doesn't have to work 50% herself in order for some of them to be carried off.

My point in the post is more about not wanting the female celebs to do so many lifts in their routines in order to try and reduce the critisism that they get by the judges and from the vieweing public that they don't work as hard as the male celebs just because being lifted is percieved as doing less dancing (which obv the male celebs don't get the same criticism of). That's why I would like the celeb girls to only do maybe one lift per routine in the early stages so that the rest of the dance is actually dancing and then the stick that they get from not dancing enough can be reduced from all sides.

It is not a criticism of the female celebs but more the show in not encouraging them to skate more by cutting out the number of lifts within the dance.

I agree, the programme is called Dancing on Ice and only two of the female contestants have managed that so far, Chemmy and Jorgie.

I agree that in the time given there are too many lifts. Some of the females barely touch the ice. I would like to see more skating too.
Rosemary was very elegant and I admire her courage hugely but she hadn't progressed as much as some of the other skaters.

I thought it was back to 'lifting on ice' last night. Far too much emphasis on them.


If you take the lifts out of the performance how much good skating is left?

100% agree. Actual skating seems to be going down on the list of essential skills every single year. I get the feeling that with every year, there is more craving for magnificent scary spectacular lifts than for skating skill and this is disappointing. However that's what telly is all about these days: "spectacular".
And we have that rope flying malarchy still to come....

If its the same AT show that I watched, Alan lifted karen not Chemmy....and it was only a few inches off the ground, he's probably lugged heavier bags of manure around in his time!