Matt Lapinskas Tops Leaderboard In Week 4 Of Dancing On Ice

It was “school disco” night in week 4 of Dancing On Ice as the remaining nine contestants opened the show skating on their own without the support of their professional partners.

First up in the competition proper was Shayne Ward and Maria Filippov, skating to Ricky Martin’s Livin’ the Vida Loca. There was plenty of opportunity for shirt ripping and posing in the routine which scored a respectable score of 20 with the judges.
Ashley: I’m really proud of you
Karen: Your best performance so far
Jason: You ended up living the vida locked in syndrome. A little progression
Robin: Relax and let the skates flow

Luke Campbell and Jenna Smith  were next, skating to Boyzone’s version of  When The Going Gets Tough. Luke is still more boxer than skater but he did manage a smile at the end. A score of 20 was probably fair  for someone who struggles with timing when skating.

Jason: There were a lot of timing issues. There was an improvement in the skill.
Robin: You had more fun. The timing was  ot good but the skating skills are there. You have to find some natural rhythm.
Karen: You need to find the beat – any beat would don

Anthea Turner and Andrew Buchanan skated to an old school favourite, Donny Osmond’s  Puppy Love. It was a sweet schoolgirl performance  with her 80-year old dad in the audience but the judges scored it at 18.5. It could well be bottom two material unless the phone vote liked it more.

Robin: You look comfortable and lovely but I have not seen you do a single skating step without your partner.
Jason: Tonight you were like a cheap bottle of champagne on ice. It was a bit saccharine.

Keith Chegwin and Olga Sharutenko had a Jackson 5 classic, I’ll Be There to skate to. It certainly inspired him and his performance achieved a score of 21.5 to take him to the top of the leaderboard after four skaters.
Jason: It was soft and lyrical and you were fully committed to the performance. Delightful to watch

Gareth Thomas and Robin Johnstone  skated to Bros, When Will I Be Famous? After the shock of being in the skate-off last week Gareth was determined to raise his game. A score of 23 took him to the top of the leaderboard.

Ashley: Good job
Robin: You are not going to be that elegant skater on the ice but you have the aggression
Jason: Solid lifts and partnering. The arm-work needs improving
Karen: Watch the posture

Matt Lapinskas and Brianne Delcourt had Slam Dunk Da Funk from 5ive to skate to. After a lot of tumbles in practice it was a strong and confident performance except for a slight mistake at the end which earned the best score of the night at 25.5.

Jason: I’m not seeing anything different from you. I don’t see anything outside of your comfort zone. You have to change it up
Karen: I disagree. You get what you are given. Criticism of  the choreography should be aimed at others not Matt
Ashley: You did well with what you are given

Beth Tweddle and Daniel Whiston skated to the Steps song 5, 6, 7, 8. It was a lively cowboy themed performance with good technical content which scored a 23 with the judges.
Ashley: I want to see more from the performance
Robin: The skating is certainly getting stronger. The timing was right as well. Just step up the performance level
Jason: It was an opportunity to show your fun side but unfortunately you don’t have one. You’re good technically but there is nothing going on with the performance
Karen: We need to work on the expression. It had strong technical content

Joe Pasquale and Vicky Ogden had 10cc’s  The Things We Do For Love for their performance. It was a cautious performance from Joe which earned a score of 16 from the judges. Joe is firmly nailed to the bottom of the judges scoreboard but  the viewers  will probably come to his rescue.

Robin: You have to skate rather than walk to get a higher tecnical score
Ashley: We love you but there’s some things that need work
Karen: It was fun and I enjoyed it
Jason: The good news is you tried something different. You didn’t play the clown

Samia Ghadie and Sylvain Longchambon closed the show with the Spice Girls’ Wannabe. The headbanger was included in Samia’s bikini-clad routine.  Samia makes some good lines but there  was little skating from Samia and the dismount from the headbanger was pretty lame so a score of 23.5 seemed to be for her bravery and a good artistic performance rather than for technical merit.

Jason: That was the performance of the night
Ashley: You looked so much more confident. You did great
Robin: You didn’t let the thought of the headbanger affect the rest of the routine

So the final result was Matt Lapinskas at the top with Joe Pasquale and Anthea Turner in the bottom two before the viewer vote.

See full scoring results for Dancing On Ice