Torvill and Dean

About

Torvil and Dean are British ice dancers and former Olympic and World champions. They competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics and the pair became the highest scoring figure skaters of all time (for a single programme) receiving twelve perfect 6.0s and six 5.9’s which included artistic impression scores of 6.0 from every judge.

The pair turned professional following the 1984 Olympics, regaining amateur status briefly ten years later in 1994 to compete in the Olympics once again

After winning the 1981 World Figure Skating 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.

The pair retired from competitive skating for good in 1998 when they toured one last time with their own show, Ice Adventures, before rejoining Stars on Ice for one more season.

There is also a housing estate in the Wollaton area of the city named ‘Torvill Drive’ and ‘Dean Close’ which is located just off Torvill Drive, with many of the surrounding roads named after coaches and dances associated with the pair.

In a UK poll conducted by Channel 4 in 2002, the British public voted Torvill and Dean’s historic gold-medal-winning performance at the 1984 Winter Olympics as Number 8 in the list of the 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.

Since 2006, they have acted as coaches, choreographers and performers in ITV’s Dancing on Ice and its Australian version Torvill and Dean’s Dancing on Ice. The ITV show returned for a fifth series in January 2010. After the 2007 and 2008 UK series of Dancing on Ice, Torvill and Dean took the show on the road for a British tour; a similar tour, the “25th Anniversary” (of their Sarajevo Olympic success) took place in 2009.

Their faces are still a familiar addition to the television scene and in their presentations they explain the dynamics of teamwork, and the addictive feeling of being the best and consistently winning.