OK a few thoughts of my own .... !

I love watching SCD because, from a dancers perspective, I understand how things work. I understand the steps, what makes a good dancer, what constitutes a good performance, I love watching the training video's, I even (God love me) enjoy arguing with the judges opinion even thought they can't hear me and my husband tells me off for shouting at the telly!

So, I wondered if, having no knowledge of ice skating at all, would affect my enjoyment of the show. What I found was that I was able to enjoy the performances without noticing all the little niggles that have me so at odds with what the judges have to say! I can now appreciate all the threads on here from people who say that a couple were brilliant in every respect, when they so clearly were not!!

Someone else mentioned the unusual positioning of the judges in relation tot he focus of the routine. I hadn't even noticed this, yet now that it's mentiones I agree that it would indeed be of importance when judging an ice dance routine. It is the same on SCD, where the judges are side onto the camera. Maybe they all have little TV monitors in the desk?

Couples I particularly enjoyed were Bonnie Langford and John Barrowman. Bonnie as expected, came across as very confident and did very well as a result. A few posters have argued that it is unfair to compare the ladies against the men, since it is the men who do all the lifting while the ladies simply have to be lifted. I am going to argue that the ladies have every bit as much to consider as the men in these lifts, as anyone who say Bonnie's training video can testify. She banged her head violently on the ice because she didn't 'take off' properly. Also, with the high lifts, a lady must have complete confidence and trust in her partner and must be able to balance her body in the right way. It's hard enough doing this on a ballroom floor, without speeding around a rink as well! But then again, I speak with little technical knowledge

John Barrowman was the chap who most looked like he was enjoying it. His introduction said that he has skated on the frozen lake by his house ever since he was little and this translated into an air of confidence on the ice.

Now to the judges and this is what struck me most of all. With the exception of the token judge from the world of choreography, the majority of the panel are skaters themselves. They are qualified to judge what we are seeing. Wht also struck me was how dignified they all were, even when one disagreed with another. There was no arguing, no fighting and no superfluous or personal remarks. Whether this will change as the series goes on remains to be seen, but I thouht thay the panel were dignified and that our own SCD panel could learn a thing or two.

It's hard to know whether this particular format is really good, or really tired... It just seems too reminiscent of other shows. It's so hard not to compare Dancing on Ice with the X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing. This is sad, because I love ice-skating and I think this show had some promising elements. As it is, it just seems like an also-ran.

The format of Dancing On Ice was a lot like the X-Factor. In particular, the 'dance-off' echoed the part of the X-Factor when the two acts with the fewest votes have to sing again, and the judges choose between them. While this is a nice opportunity for an act to improve on an earlier performance, it smacks of a lack of originality on the part of the show's creators. Certain dramatic aspects were lifted wholesale from other shows - especially the annoying 'The last act through.... we'll tell you after the break' - a tiresome, contrived and desperate way to hang on to viewers. I dunno, I was hoping for more. Dancing On Ice left me rather cold, pardon the pun.

I'm going to persevere with the show for a bit, because a few of the celebrities did impress me on Saturday. But I'm going to be thinking of Strictly Come Dancing the whole time! Honest!

x

I think that strictly Ice dancing are trying to copy the xfactor I mean the dance off at the end very xfactor styile do you think

I can't quite put my finger on why it's not right. It just wasn't exciting and although it was all sparkly I had the feeling of being in an aircraft hanger. If Concorde had come in on skates wouldn't have been surprised. I suppose we'll get into it.

The fact that some people are calling it Strictly Ice Dancing says a lot!

I've made my feelings clear in another thread. I think Dancing On Ice is awful. However, 9.5million debut on Sat night is pretty astonishing by any standards.

where do you get the figures from?

Claire

The Dancing On Ice thread in the TV Programmes forum.

I believe most people obtain the ratings by registering with MediaGuardian. I haven't done it myself. Probably should tho - i spend half my time here asking other people!

Isn't the American one called 'Skating with Celebrities?'

Nat
xxx

never trust ITV viewing figures as they're massaged more than a ...thing that's massaged quite a lot! ITV is a terrible channel with the false excitment of ...after the break and the huge pauses in all their programs (eg millionaire) so they can squeeze in as many ad breaks as they can. Vile.

I watched it out of curiousity but with only 10 minutes skating in the entire show I'll stick to my SCD final video.

ITV belongs to a time of 3 day strikes, electricity cuts and union misery. talking of which how good is 'Life on Mars'!

ITV is generally awful, yes. SCD is a far better show, yes.

However, the ratings are the overnights from MediaGuardian, not ITV.

Ouch GOUGHMIXURE.

Are you a channel controller for the BBC or something? Not that I don't agree with at least some of the points you made.

Given a choice between the Sound of Musicals and DOI, surely ITV has to be the better option (on this occasion)

Claire

Sorry if this has been said already but.....Did anyone else think that Holly was trying a little to hard to be like our Tess? She kept smiling and batting her eyes like tess - only that tess can get away with it!

who is tess?

Tess Daly - one of the hosts from strictly come dancing

I see... Can we focus on the Ice rather than some other (in my opinion Tacky) talent contest?

Is this the same "tacky" talent contest that you hadn't even heard of until a few weeks ago, let alone seen, digimon900?

And what exactly is Dancing On Ice if not a tacky talent contest?

Exactly - I didnt really know how to reply to the response i got for my post - so thank you trem two - you took the words right out my mouth!

Dancing on ice is about skating, its a shame that thay have to make it tacky with phone ins and plastic judges
Skating is a skill, dont know about dancing cant say as I have any knowledge or experience of mainstream dance. I know about African cultural dances and what music goes with what dance that is about my limit.
I dont in any way support or believe in competitive sports and tv talent shows are just scraping the bottom of the barrel, combining the two is sad but I shall continue to watch the skating.

Whilst i fully respect your right to hold your own opinions digimon900, i have never been regularly left quite so bemused by someone's usage of knowledge and logic as you.

You say skating is a skill and imply that this warrants greater academic approval than dancing. Nonesense. There is no more acquired skill to skating than there is to dancing. This idea that because skating is more trecherous that it is something of a higher form of art than dancing is ridiculous. Dancing On Ice is based on EXACTLY the same conceptual format as Strictly Come Dancing and in no way is more "about skating" than SCD was "about dancing". In fact, i would argue that SCD emphasised the skill gaining of the contestants more than DOI has illustrated thus far.

You dismiss 'modern dancing' because you know nothing about it. SCD is a ballroom dancing show and entails the learning of dance traditions influenced by a broad range of cultures and ages. Contestants have to learn the jive, waltz, foxtrot, tango, samba, paso doble to name but a few. Each of them are a new 'art' in themselves. On Dancing On Ice the contestants are on a less dynamic journey - simply to get better at ice skating week on week.

I'm not playing down ice skating. I'm playing down your implied assertion that ice skating is more of an art or a challenge than ballroom dancing. Nonsense.

The core of this particular debate is that if Strictly Come Dancing is 'tacky' then Dancing On Ice is unquestionably equally so.

If you wish to focus on Dancing on Ice rather than Strictly Come Dancing you will need to start a dedicated thread in the Reality Tv forum ~ this forum is specifically about Strictly Come Dancing. I'm not saying that other programmes will not be discussed in passing here, but they will very certainly not become the focus.
Last edited by dancingbearbear : 17-01-2006 at 17:29

Trem two
I have never suggested otherwise. My views are that TV talent shows are tacky full stop. My words are if you read my post that "Skating is a skill" and "I have no knowledge or experience of mainstream dance" I have never dismissed any form of dance nor did I ever state that skating should gain more recognition because it involved any thing more trecherous.
I am bemused at your use of knowledge because quite frankly you did not read or understand the content of my post at all!
My appreciation of the programme is that it contains Ice Skating, something which I can understand and enjoy. I put up with the tackiness and the sad phone in parts to see some people famous or otherwise demonstrate a skill that they are using to create a performance for others to enjoy.

digimon900,

Fair enough. I may well be guilty of interpreting your post to my annoyance. I was aligning your post as a continuation of the point of contention being discussed. Whe you stated flatly that "Dancing on ice is about skating" and that "skating is a skill" i took that as a rebuttal of the suggestion that DOI was 'tacky' - otherwise i would have failed to see the point of your post at all.

Plus the idea of skating being more dangerous and thus more skillful was perpetuated in the other forum's thread on the show - whether intentionally or not.

Anyway, i apologise for jumping to conclusions.

ok
I originally entered this thread so that I could find out whether doi was based on scd

Wooooooaaahh! What have I come home to???

digimon, although u came with good intentions your post does seem to suggest exactly what everyone took it for!

And as an answer to your question - DOI is a big rip-off of SCD!

Nat
xxx

Everyone?
Its just as well I know that from the start! I hate finding out stuff like that halfway through! I see Holly taking part in a kids programme called feel the fear is she known as anything?