Torvil & Dean 1984 Pro World Magic

[bigdeal]

Ice dance is happen to be one of my favourite discipline to watch, especially nowdays, when it's went back to its root, and became a real ice dance again.

After watching the most talented teams nowdays (Virtue/Moir, Davis/White and Weaver/Poje) I've been watching my all time favourites, Torvill/Dean performances in the Pro World back in 28 years (!!!!!!!) in 1984.

I became speachless.

Watch and enjoy it ( it is NOT Bolero...)

Technical dance:
http://youtu.be/0zcOyzAqHeA

Artistic dance:
http://youtu.be/3mlMb8HsPFc


I wish all the recent coaches and dancers would watch it carefully, especially those who was not lucky to know them in those "old" (but seemingly VERY modern) days...

[dorispulaski]

I loved so many of the programs they did during their pro career, especially Song of India, the tech program linked above!

[Its_Delovely]

*Delurks and waves hello!*

Love those programs you linked! I've been on a T&D kick lately, too. "Song of India" is so hypnotic and gorgeous. (And that lift at 3:13 in the first video you linked is just...wow.) Even by today's standards, "Encounter" is innovative, and an emotional, heartbreaking experience.

For me, Torvill and Dean are everything that ice dance can be and everything I love about it.

[Olympia]

Wow! These programs haven't lost any luster with the passage of time. They don't look as if skating has passed them by at all.

It seems to me that they are influenced a lot by modern dance rather than ballroom dancing or ballet. Does that make sense to anyone else? I don't remember their training methods at all.

I was going to say that they (and we) were lucky that they turned pro during a golden age of pro skating, but their pro years were actually before what we consider the height of pro skating's popularity in the nineties. In fact, Torvill and Dean can probably be considered among the creators of modern pro skating. Like John Curry, they opened up venues everywhere that hadn't had much interest in pro skating before.

[jcoates]

Thanks for posting. These were wonderful programs and wonderful years for me personally, as I grew up in the are where the event was held and attended it many times.

Here's another one of the masterpieces from later in their career.

Bridge Over Troubled Water (not from World Pro)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SiVR...feature=fvwrel

Take Five
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwOl6...eature=related

[dorispulaski]

Their Oscar Tango, performed without music, to the amplified sound of their skates, for the first minute. Their unison, considering, there is no music, is amazing. With music, (rest of the piece) it's better

Technical program from 1990
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-N3F...F5F3D779C15BA8

without commentary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKykrKh1mrk

WPC 1990 Artistic program

Skating to John Lennon's Revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Op9MS1f3WAk

T&D developing the Missing routine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NJC_D8RLHQ

Hat Trick exhibition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oycpw...eature=related

Shepherd's Song (Baillero)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JemNM...eature=related

[jcoates]

I have been searching for this clip for years. It's mesmerizing. I believe I originally saw it as part of a documentary on T&D back in the 90s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g-uf81SUko

[dorispulaski]

There were several pieces by T&D in that show on Yo Yo Ma & & the Bach Cello Suite.

T&D weren't in all the pieces, AFAIR.

Here's another they were in, the Gavotte

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdlPc...eature=related

and Courante
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yna-U...eature=related

[bigdeal]

Thank you for the wonderful clips.
This topic is getting better and better
I think that 2-3 decades after their haydays, their legacy is still growing.

[Olympia]

Simply sublime to contemplate.

I remember watching that PBS show with Yo-Yo Ma and the visual interpreters of Bach, including Torvill and Dean. I taped it, but with my fuzzy broadcast reception it was not rewarding to re-watch. Thank goodness once again for YouTube and the devoted fans who supply it with gems like this.

I love T and D's rendition of "Missing." Though the Duchesnays are splendid performing it and add an emotional charge to it, it's wonderful seeing the creator of the piece skating it partnered by his ultimate muse.

I haven't had time to work my way through all the links on this thread yet. Has anyone posted a performance of the program "Venus" from The Planets? In it, Dean, covered up with a drape, carries Torvill around so that she's like a planet floating through space.

We throw the word genius around and cheapen it, especially in the arts. But I think Christopher Dean qualifies to be called this.

[dorispulaski]

That was the 1985 world pro championships, where T&D did Venus (an interview about this piece yielded Dean discussing the Void, hence the FSU term voidy) and an attempt at humor, the Diablo Tango.

Artistic dance WPC 1985 Venus (from the Planets)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxl97VXAIjU

[iluvtodd]

Love them, especially for "Hat Trick!"