‘Dancing on Ice Tour’ in Sheffield!!

Hey guys!! Last Wednesday, me, my mum, granny and sister all enjoyed an evening at Sheffield Arena, watching a performance of the Dancing on Ice Tour. In case you were wondering, Dancing on Ice is a popular Sunday night TV show which was originally founded in 2006 by legendary ice skaters Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean who won gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics when they performed the Boléro. Celebrities were partnered up with professional ice skaters to compete week after week for the Dancing on Ice trophy. The show had been going strong for 9 seasons when it was announced in 2013 that the ninth series would be the show’s last. However, Dancing on Ice returned back after a 5 year break in 2018 and so like after all the other seasons had ended, some of the celebrities along with their partners, toured around some of the arenas in Britain to showcase to audiences the skills they had learned and grant them with a taster of what the competition had been like. ‘Dancing on Ice’ was one of my favourite childhood shows so I was extremely excited to watch it this year and also get to experience a performance of the tour at Sheffield Arena. So in today’s post, I’m going to be describing my experience of the Dancing on Ice tour and presenting my honest opinion of it.

Stepping out into the Arena for the first time was incredible. There was this amazing atmosphere as people all around us eagerly awaited the start of the show. It was explained to us before the start of the performance that the first half before the interval would be similar to the process of the TV show where all the couples would skate their favourite number from the show and be scored by a judging panel made up of Torvill, Dean and guest judge Denise Van Outen. After everyone had skated, the audience would have the chance to vote via text for their favourite and during the interval, the votes would be counted and verified. Then, it would be announced at the beginning of the second half who received the most votes and the two couples would battle it out to become the winner through their performance of the iconic Boléro. Once the winner had been selected by the judging panel, the rest of the show would consist of ice dances from the celebs, the professionals and even Torvill and Dean themselves!! Of the 12 celebs who contended against each other in the 10th series, half of them were asked to go on tour: winner of the series and reality TV mogul Jake Quickenden, Rugby League Star Max Evans, Love Island winner Kem Cetinay, Weather Presenter Alex Beresford, Media Personality Donna Air and TV Presenter and Bucks Fizz group member Cheryl Baker. Their professional partners from the TV show were Vanessa Bauer, Ale Izqueirdo, Alex Murphy, Brianne Delcourt, Mark Hanretty and Dan Whiston. Also, one of the show’s most outstanding winners of the past, Ray Quinn who won in 2009 and 2014 in the all stars series was returning to be part of the tour with partner Alexandra Schauman. Some of the other professionals who didn’t already have celeb partners on the tour like Sylvain Longchambon, Matt Evers and Lukasz Różycki were on the tour too.

All the celebs along with their professional partners skated their routines beautifully and you could definitely see a development both in the routine and their skating skills. The wonderful thing about watching them all skate was that each celeb had personal strengths and weaknesses and all of their rountines were incredibly unique and exceptional, considering they’d only been skating since the beginning of 2018. Some of the lifts and moves that they executed, I would never dare do in a million years for fear of injuring myself. As I’d mentally predicted before the show began, Ray and Jake both topped the leader board with perfect scores of 30 which was definitely well deserved on both of their parts after they’d delivered such amazing routines. After the interval, all of the celebs lined up on the ice, prepared to discover whether they’d been voted to perform the Boléro. One by one, they were eliminated until only Jake, Ray and Kem were left. Nervously, I awaited the result, praying that Jake had been voted to do the Boléro since he was my favourite from the series because he’s an amazing skater as well as being a local lad from Scunthorpe. Sadly, Kem was the last to be voted out and Ray and Jake were chosen to perform the Boléro. Both couples performed the Boléro and while Jake and Vanessa executed a breath taking routine, Ray and Alexandra had a slight edge on them and were crowned the champions.

Max and Ale

Cheryl and Dan

Alex and Brianne

Kem and Alex

Donna and Mark

Ray and Alexandra

Jake and Vanessa

All the celebs awaiting the result

Ray and Alexandra’s Boléro

Jake and Vanessa’s Boléro

Moving on from that, some more light- hearted routines were skated with each celebrity performing another one of their ice dances from the TV show. Also, there were some great skates from the professionals with an exciting trio of Brianne, Matt and Dan, a thrilling duet with Alexandra and Luckasz and an amazing rountine featuring 3 of the professional couples. Earlier on in the show, Jayne Torvill mentioned about Jake Quickenden singing during the second half due to his status as a former X Factor contestant so naturally, this happened along with all the other routines. Jake sang an incredible cover of ‘Say something’ while Vanessa skated elegantly around the ice. Torvill and Dean swapped the judging panel for the ice rink and executed a stunning rountine which was first debuted in the 2018 final of Dancing on Ice on TV. As well as all these wonderful rountines, the squad of Jake, Max, Kem and Ray showed off their skills as a quartet and used their rountine as an excuse to get shirtless much to the joy of some of the female audience members. As a finale, all the celebs and their professional partners entered the rink for one massive group rountine, featuring daring lifts, amazing moves and excellent partner work which was a wonderful way to end a fantastic show.

Donna and Mark

Luckasz and Alexandra

Matt, Dan and Brianne

Max and Ale

Kem and Alex

Jake and Vanessa

6 of the professionals

Torvill and Dean

Alex and Brianne

Ray and Alexandra

All the professionals and celebs

To conclude, I massively enjoyed the ‘Dancing On Ice Tour’ in Sheffield and can’t wait for the show to begin again next year. There was a variety of slow, sentimental skates and daring, dramatic dances which I immensely enjoyed and there was so much talent between the professionals and also the celebs.

Thank you for reading this post!! What’s your favourite TV show? Let me know in the comments!! There’ll be another post out soon but until then bye for now!!

Amelia Grace a.k.a Amelia in Hull