After the Final: what now?

“What you gonna do when Dancing on Ice finishes?” asked a colleague last Friday as I prattled on once more about how desperate I was to see Joe Swash and Alex Murphy skate Bolero. Not realising at the time what a visual treat they had in store with their Chaplin-inspired routine, reminiscent in places of Karen Barber and Nicky Slater’s 1984 Free Dance.

I decided early this year to forego a trip to WordAlive in Prestatyn (North Wales) this year partly in an effort to save money (my main priority for 2020 being to move in to my own place after staying with my parents for the last couple of years) but also in order to drive over to Blackpool and spend a day at  the 53rd Annual Ice Skating Festival at Blackpool Pleasure Beach Arena. Whilst currently the British Skating Union appear to be following the British government’s somewhat more relaxed approach and have not begun cancelling events it seems unlikely I’ll be in a position to ‘wait and see’ before booking my hotel and so alas I regretfully will not be attending. Fingers crossed I’ll make it across for the Hot Ice show instead at some point in the summer.

And (presuming the madness has ceased) be attending The British Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield at the beginning of December, having secured the time off work and being lucky enough to have friends and family nearby. Though finance allowing i’ll be staying elsewhere as I don’t much fancy a week on a sofa. As detailed on the homepage, I’m not a skater myself just a massive fan of the sport, which some people find odd, but it’s no stranger that many a bloke on the football terraces unable to kick a ball in a straightline!

What I’ve found very odd over the last couple of months is the DOI fans on various Facebook groups I made the mistake of joining who avidly watch the show yet have no knowledge of or appreciation for the discipline from which the professionals emerged. Though not perhaps as alarming as the endless arguments over the judging panel and their scoring seemingly based more on who the contributor ‘liked’ rather than their technical ability. I adore Dancing on Ice (obviously). I adore it for what it is. Dancing…on…ice. The celebrities learn to dance, on ice. They learn to skate sufficiently to dance, on ice. The progress (almost) all of the contestants make in so short a time is phenomenal bearing in mind the years competitive and professional skaters put in and they deserve much praise.

That said, some of the comments have not only bordered on the ridiculous, but fully jumped the shark! There have been a few skaters over the years whom had they begun training as a youngster may well have had the capability to progress through the competitive ranks but to suggest that any one of the celebrities should represent us in the Olympics is not only naive but does a huge disservice to those dedicated guys and girls plugging away at their passion away from the cameras in rinks up and down the country.

Whilst the terrestrial channels seem to be inexplicably incapable of making the art form as readily available as the British Bowls Championships, for example (which was Broadcast on BBC2 at the same time as the inaugural Britannia Cup, Junior Olympic coverage and British Synchonised Skating Championships were shunted onto iplayer), with almost every house in the country having access to the internet and the ISU ensuring almost all major competitions are viewable live on their YouTube channel, it’s not difficult to catch sight of the current crop aiming to emulate Jayne and Chris’ success or to discover how the sport as evolved since Sarajevo. At present British Ice dancers aiming to compete in the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics receive zero funding from UK Sport (compared to Curling’s £6.35m). Forced to juggle arduous training on ice and intensive off-ice body conditioning with earning enough money to simply live as well as train (a Telegraph report last December estimated juniors were spending around £20K an annum), whilst their Russian counterparts begin training around at 3 or 4 years of age (as compared Fear and Gibson and Torvill and Dean who each began around 9 to 11), receiving much needed financial support from The Figure Skating Federation of Russia (FSFR). Little wonder then that despite the passion and resilience of Britian’s top flight skaters, Russia take home fifty percent of all Olympic Figure Skating medals.

A quick glance at the UK Sport website’s funding pages, shows that those attracting the most funding are those we’ve medalled in most recently and those that attract the most viewers. Arguably one being the cause of the other and vice-versa. Whilst Lilah Gibson and Lewis Fear (current British Ice Dance champions) are without doubt Britain’s best competitors since Jayne and Chris, without an increase in funding the wait for another UK medal will continue. Yet without more folk making the leap from Sunday night’s in front of DOI to supporting British competitive skating it seems inevitable the strangulation of the sport by funding authorities will continue it’s vicious circle.

Cirque du Soliel, the largest contemporary circus producer in the world have recognised the phenomenal capacity for creativity with it’s current show ‘Crystal’, employing four-time world Benjamin Agosot as the Skating Performances Designer, alongside four-time world champion, Kurt Browning as its Skating Performances Senior Designer. As showcased in the snippet included in this years DOI, the show employs both extreme acrobatic skating as well as more traditional figure skating to wow its audiences with skaters from countless countries around the world, including the UK. Cirque du Soleil are a massive company employing almost 5,000 individuals worldwide and it’s decision to diversify into the world of the rink for the 1st time since its inception in 1984 is testament to the pulling power of the ice.

If you truly love Dancing on Ice, the good news is there’s no need to wait until January to get your fill of the action. From British and international competitive skating competitions and festivals, arena tours such as Cirque du Soleil or a trip to the long running Hot Ice Show in Blackpool there’s plenty ways to get your fix, support our skaters, be they amateurs, professionals, ice dancers, acrobatic skaters, juniors, novice, synchro, pairs…if they’ve got blades on, show them the love and show the sports bodies British skating deserves better!