This month, it will be 25 years since Torville and Dean unveiled their classic ice dance ‘Bolero’ and went on to win Olympic Gold in Sarajevo in 1984.
I first came across Torville and Dean when they danced ‘Mack and Mabel’ in 1982:
Even though I was totally rubbish at ice skating (and even got my nose broken by someone else’s flailing arm on one occasion) I had followed the Olympic performances of John Curry and Robin Curry but my favourite was always the pairs figure skating. However, ice dancing – and particularly Torville and Dean – was totally different. There were rules that stipulated, amongst other things, that you couldn’t do certain lifts – I think the male partner couldn’t lift his arms above his head to elevate the woman.
More than anything, the T&D routines appealled because, instead of being three separate and unconnected pieces of music, their choices were the catchiest tunes taken from established musical tales and had so many intricate little movements at which you just couldn’t help but smile. Skating sequences that had never been seen in traditional pairs skating, performed with a warmth and emotion that showed the very stark contrast between the two disciplines.
They raised the bar yet again the following year with ‘Barnum’. A routine which won the perfect score from all the judges for Artistic Impression at the World Championships that year, the first time this had ever been achieved:
Their partnership tapped into the Nation’s psyche and won everyone over with performances that not only told a story but were so perfectly sychronised, it was as almost as if the two bodies were controlled by one mind. Innovative, inspired and totally different, their captivating choreography provided the building blocks for a whole raft of inferior emulations in the future.
And, finally, Bolero in 1984:
Previously, their programmes had been made up of three movements, a slower segment sandwiched by an introduction and a grand finale. But Bolero was just the one piece with a tempo that gradually increased in power and volume only to stop dead at the final climax. An emotional snapshot in the form of a dance.
The world went mad for them. Their complete synchronicity on the ice produced the inevitable media questions. Were they a couple? Were they about to get married? Was Bolero a visual mnemonic for their romance?
We were all in love.
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