Dancing On Ice pro Dan Whiston has jumped to Brooke Vincent’s defence following recent remarks about her skating.
The Coronation Street star and her pro partner Matej Silecky earned 19 out of a possible 40 points for their routine on last Sunday’s show.
They were praised for a “fantastic” overhead lift but judge Jason Gardiner also compared Brooke to a “department store mannequin”, while Ashley Banjo said her arms, legs and timing were “all over the place”.
Well, pro Dan reckons the judges need to cut Brooke some slack.
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Writing in his weekly OK! Online column, he said: “Brooke Vincent has a lot to offer, but she does get some comments from the judges which can be quite hurtful.”
Dan went on to point out that Brooke, 25, is juggling her Dancing On Ice training with filming Coronation Street, which means racing to the rink before and after work.
Dan said Brooke’s full schedule means she’s “in and out of the studio like a yo-yo” and “it’s very stressful” for her.
“She doesn’t shy away from hard work though, and I know she puts everything into the show,” he said.
But he added: “At the end of the day the judges are there for a reason, and you do have to take it on the chin.”
Brooke and Matej skated to Zara Larsson’s Lush Life last week. They scored a four from Jason, and five points from Chris Dean, Jayne Torvill and Ashley each. It was their best mark yet.
Chris praised their overhead lift as “fantastic”, saying it took “a lot of strength, ability and trust”, while Jayne said she appreciated they’d added more skating to the routine.
However, she said: “At some moments where you getreally ugly positions with the feet, whereas you can have beautuful lines in the lifts, so think about that.”
Jason said the choreography was better this week but added: “Brooke, this is the issue. You went and did ballet class and that worked on the upper half of your body.
“But the legs look like Matej is skating around with a department store mannequin. You have to work on those feet.”
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Ashley said the lift was great, but that with the slower number it was more exposing: “The arms and the legs and the timing was a little bit all over the place.”
Brooke replied: “The skating is new, the dancing is new. I’m here and I’m learning and I will hopefully come back next week and be better.”
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