WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
The British ice dancing team of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean enjoyed a remarkable amateur career, winning Olympic gold in 1984, Olympic bronze in 1994 and four World titles in the early 1980s.
DANCING ON AIR O
TORVILL AND DEAN FIND HUGE SUCCESS ON TV by LOIS ELFMAN
lympic ice dance gold medalists (1984) and four-time World cham- pions (1981‒84) Jayne Torvill and
Christopher Dean shift into high gear each January. Teir wildly popular British TV show, “Dancing on Ice,” which pairs celeb- rities with professional skaters, is in season seven and their creative juices are flowing. Te early part of the season is especially
intense, as Torvill and Dean do the choreogra- phy for all the couples (last season started with 15 teams). Tey also create the opening rou- tines for each show, which feature the show’s pro skaters and usually Torvill and Dean. “Every week we’re going over music that
we’re planning for two or three weeks down the road that then has to get edited,” Dean said. “We have to listen to the edits and put those together. We’re also looking at costume design.
“Each week there’s a format. We’ve got to take that into consideration. Talking with the director on our particular number, how we see it and visualize it. It’s a lot of time and a lot of effort, but I love that effort. It’s a real collaboration. It’s not just two people. It’s an army of people that put this together.” Each show is watched by upward of 10 million people around the United Kingdom, which is phenomenal viewership. Torvill laughed when recalling their reactions when the show premiered in 2006. “Not having worked specifically for tele- vision, when the first show went out it got 10 or 11 million viewers,” she said. “We asked, ‘Is that good?’ We know now. Ten we were just happy that everyone was happy about it.” High-profile success at this point in their
The DVD of the live tour is a popular item.
lives, while not surprising, was certainly unex- pected. In 1998, after 14 years of touring and performing all over the world — as well as a competitive comeback in 1994 that garnered them another European title and an Olym- pic bronze medal — Torvill and Dean quietly slipped into retirement. Dean, now 53, spent most of his time in
Colorado. He concentrated on raising sons Jack, 13, and Sam, 11, and choreographed for ice dance teams and singles skaters. In 2004, he became the director and lead choreogra- pher of Stars on Ice. Torvill, now 54, settled into domestic life back home in England, where she and husband Phil Christensen be- came parents of Kieran, 9, and Jessica, 5. Ten each of them received a phone call about a concept for a new TV show — pair- ing celebrities who had little or no experience in skating with professional skaters in weekly
8 FEBRUARY 2012
competition. “We thought it was most probably not going to be an idea that they would run with. Who can make a TV show out of people who can’t skate?” Dean said with a laugh. “Ten we started to think about it. We
thought there is a possibility here, but it’s all to do with the length of time we get with the celebrities so there’s a commitment to it. You can’t do something two or three weeks out, like “Dancing with the Stars.” We need three months out just to get people comfortable to then start experimenting.” Tey waited a year to debut the show so
there would be sufficient time to develop the format. After the “Dancing on Ice” premiere drew huge numbers, everyone wondered if viewers would return for week two. Not only did they return for week two, but for seasons two, three and beyond. Te show is broadcast live and there is a live studio audience. When the show was in the original plan-
ning stages, Torvill and Dean said they were not going to perform. As the first show ap- proached, a producer asked if they’d demon- strate some moves. Tey said, OK. “Ten we were asked, ‘Could you do it
to music?’ We said that’s like doing a routine. Tey said, ‘Yes, we’d love you to do it.’ We sort of agreed tentatively. I think the first routine we did was 45 seconds long,” Torvill said. “We were quite nervous coming back out to per- form. We trained. Tere were a few aches and pains initially, but we’d been skating and per- forming longer than we’d stopped perform- ing, so it does come back. It’s sort of built in your muscle memory. After a couple of weeks training together, it felt normal again.” “Te first time we went back out and
performed in front of that live audience — knowing potentially there would be a few million people watching — it was a nervous performance,” Dean said. “Once we got into it, once we had the excitement of it after the performance, it sort of whetted the appetite.” Te first year, Torvill and Dean handled all the coaching of the celebrities. Now, they’ve learned that isn’t necessary. When the celebrities begin to train — committing to 10 hours per week — they work with local coaches. After they are put together with their partners, the show’s coaches, Karen Barber and Mark Naylor, begin to work with them. Torvill and Dean pop in from time to time, and they do all the choreography. Te professional skaters on the show, many of who grew up idolizing Torvill and Dean, say watching the choreographic process
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