Torvill and Dean
Torvill and Dean are a famous British ice dancing team, consisting of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean.
The beginnings
Around 1975, Jayne Torvill was a former British Senior Pairs champion trying to skate singles, and Christopher Dean and his partner had won a British Junior Ice Dance competition. Nottingham coach Janet Sawbridge put them together, and the rest is figure skating history. They took their first trophy in 1976. They changed coaches to Betty Callaway in 1978. After a 5th place at their first Olympics, in Lake Placid in 1980, and 4th in Worlds that year, they never took less than first place in any competition they entered, except in 1994.
Use of narrative and thematic music
After winning the 1981 World Championships (which brought the distinction of MBEs), and with three more years before the Olympics, they began to plan routines which used a single piece of music and had some narrative or thematic element. At that time, Ice Dance "long" routines typically used several pieces of music, often with different rhythms to show off the command of different steps (thus their Free Dance in 1981 used "Fame", "Caravan", "Red Sails in the Sunset", and "Swing, Swing, Swing"); the short program used only one piece of music, but the entire routine had to be performed three times in sequence, exactly the same way. In 1982, they presented a long program to excerpts from the musical Mack and Mabel, which evoked the emotions of a sweet but stormy romance; in 1983, they enacted a visit to the circus with music from Barnum, with help from the stage show's star, Michael Crawford; in 1984, at the Olympics, they stunned the world with Bolero, and also with their dramatic Paso Doble short routine, in which Jayne "was" the bullfighter's cape. They had learned to choose and edit music carefully and design routines that were appealing both technically and imaginatively, and their completeness of presentation included marvelous, thematically appropriate costumes. Moreover, their combination of showmanship and sheer niceness made them famous beyond the usual scope of ice dancers.
Going Professional
Although Jayne and Chris had been able to leave their jobs as insurance secretary and policeman, thanks to grants from the city of Nottingham, they were not allowed to earn any money at all from skating as long as they wished to remain eligible for the Olympics. Turning pro in 1984, they took advantage not only of the financial but of the artistic possibilities of their new status. They worked with Australian dance choreographer Graeme Murphy at first, and were able to create not only routines for themselves but entire ice shows with a thematic coherence, which toured Australia, the U.S., and Europe. Their projects included a filmed fairy tale "Fire and Ice." In general, it seems, Chris Dean would imagine the sequence he wanted to perform, and Jayne would work with him to refine it technically. They choreographed as a team for other ice dancers and skaters, particularly the Canadian brother-sister team Isabelle and Paul Duchesnay, who skated for France at the Albertville Olympics in 1992, taking the silver medal with their West Side Story routine.
Return to the Olympics
After ten years as professionals, Torvill and Dean decided to return to the amateur arena in person for the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer (along with other great skaters of the 1980s, such as Brian Boitano and Katarina Witt, thanks to a change in eligibility rules). Their long dance was designed to re-establish some of the ideas about Ice Dance which they themselves had been instrumental in dismantling; "Let's face the music and dance" had no swooning lovers, theatrical accessories, or violent ideological "message"--just fast, delightful dance in the best Astaire and Rogers tradition. The routine did have one move, an assisted lift, which pushed the envelope of the rules and gave the judges an opportunity to award the couple a third place, giving the second to perennial silver medalists Usova and Zhulin and the gold to Grishuk and Platov, who continued to win gold through the next four years.
Life after the Olympics
After the disappointing finish at Lillehammer, Torvill and Dean "picked themselves up and dusted themselves off" and continued with their planned and very successful "Face the Music" tour, to be followed by numerous other projects: a suite of dances to the songs of Paul Simon, professional competitions, touring with Stars on Ice, and collaborating with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and director Patricia Rozema on the video Inspired by Bach: Six Gestures. In late 1998, they produced an ice show at Wembley Stadium in London, "Ice Adventures," which included a "flying" ice ballet and other wonders. In the meantime, they were still choreographing, notably for the dynamic French Ice Dance team, Anissina and Peizerat, who won first place in the World Championships in 2000.
In 1999, the pair officially retired, each continuing to coach and choreograph separately. The duo, as of 14th January 2006, are taking part as coaches in ITV's Dancing on Ice show.