Dancing on Ice is missing the thing that makes Strictly so special
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Sunday night saw the return of Dancing on Ice for its 16th series. As half of the new bunch of celebrities took their tentative first steps onto the ice, one of the highlights of the opening show was the stunning group routine by the cast of professional skaters – who are very much the unsung heroes of the series.
The role of the professionals on the show should not be understated. As well as creating these entertaining group numbers, they are also tasked with teaching their partners to skate. While on Strictly Come Dancing, the pros work with their celebrities for a couple of weeks before the first show, on Dancing on Ice the first performance is a culmination of months of hard work already.
Despite this, the professionals remain undervalued and overlooked players in the show, something which could be clearly seen in the first episode of the series.
Three new pros, Vanessa James, Simon Senecal and Amani Fancy, made their debuts on the show on Sunday, with Annette Dytrt set to perform for the first time next week. While it was great to see new talent on the ice, we didn’t learn anything about the newbies during the show except their nationalities, with their introductions taking the form of a couple of lines in their celebrity’s VT.
By contrast, Strictly, a show with effectively the same format, uses the first show as an opportunity to introduce their new professionals properly, often showcasing them in a group number and allowing the audience to get to know them from the start.
Strictly professionals are now perhaps as loved as the show itself. This is, of course, the case for long-serving pros like Anton du Beke, now a judge on the show, and Oti Mabuse, who has forged her own TV career and now sits on the Dancing on Ice panel. But this is also true of newer dancers like Vito Coppola, Jowita Przystał and Nikita Kuzmin, who have all joined the show in the last three years yet have each already made a big impact.
Most of the pros have social media followings as big as, if not bigger than, the celebs themselves, and many have the popularity to tour their own shows around the country during the year. This might not be a completely fair comparison to make, as dancing is a different beast to ice-skating, but the point is that their success is because Strictly made them the stars of the show.
We tune into Strictly for the celebrities taking part, but we stay for the blossoming partnerships, with even juicy romance rumours giving audiences reason to watch each week regardless of whether there’s any truth to them. Dancing on Ice works in the exact same way, but how are you meant to support your favourite couple if you never get to know one half of the partnership?
Dancing on Ice has always had something of a revolving door of professionals, partly because most are not permanently based in the UK, but in the show’s early days there was a core group that fans of the show loved, including Matt Evers, Maria Filippov, Frankie Poultney and Dan Whiston, the last of whom is now the show’s Associate Creative Director. But the pro line-up now changes drastically each year, and it feels like the show doesn’t have a particular desire to invest in the professionals, even the viewer favourites.
If there is one pro who is synonymous with Dancing on Ice, it’s Matt. The American skater has been part of every series since the show began in 2006, and among his many partners was Ian ‘H’ Watkins, with whom he formed the first same-sex partnership (before even Strictly's Nicola Adams and Katya Jones).
It was confirmed that Matt was leaving the show back in October, with 2023 his final series. However, it was announced with very little fanfare, with the show deeming it appropriate to say goodbye to a professional of 17 years with only a single tweet from their account wishing him the best.
Even worse, pro Alex Murphy won the show in 2020 with partner Joe Swash, but just a couple of months later she was cut from the line-up, as the heartbroken reigning champion revealed her contract had not been renewed for the next series.
Everyone feels very replaceable on Dancing on Ice, which creates a rather unsettling vibe that is quite the opposite to the ‘family’ atmosphere that is promoted at Strictly.
The show is still able to make changes, and with four new pros this year there is no better time to make them.
Let's appreciate those professionals who have been here for a long while: Mark Hanretty, Sylvain Longchambon and Vicky Ogden have all been with the show since before it went on a four-year hiatus in 2014. DJ Adele Roberts is set to be Mark’s tenth celebrity partner, marking over a decade of dedication to the series.
Dancing on Ice producers: allow viewers to get to know the newer members of the group! Give them the opportunity to speak during the post-skate chats, praise them for their hard work and showcase their personalities outside of the rink – it will only make the partnerships more popular.
With fast-dwindling viewing figures, the future of the show is undoubtedly in question, and if it is to survive, it needs to invest more in the people who make the show what it is. While the celebrities are the stars, the professionals are the heart of any show like Dancing on Ice, and the show would benefit so much from recognising this.
Dancing on Ice airs on ITV1 and streams on ITVX.
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