Ice Dancing - Ice Dance History

Ice Dance History

Ice dance has a strong tradition in the United Kingdom. Many of the compulsory dances which are still competed today were developed by British dancers in the 1930s, and 12 of the first 16 World Championships in ice dance were won by British couples. The British team of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously won the Olympic gold medal in Sarajevo in 1984 with a dramatic free skate to Ravel's Bolero which earned unanimous 6.0s for presentation.

The British style of ice dance originally emphasized upright carriage and strong edges achieved by deep knee bend. Beginning in the 1960s, Eastern European skaters started a trend to dance in more open positions, which allowed for greater speed over the ice, more upper-body involvement, and greater projection towards the audience. In the 1970s, top Soviet dancers began to develop a more theatrical style of ice dancing incorporating elements of ballet and often based on narrative program themes. The Russian style of dance emphasized extended line and speed, rather than difficult rhythmic footwork. In some cases, elaborate choreography for the upper body was used to camouflage fundamental deficiencies of skating technique. By the early 1990s, however, all the top dance teams were performing routines in the theatrical, rather than ballroom, style.

At this point, the International Skating Union began to try to restrain theatricality in ice dancing, first by attempting to return it to its ballroom roots by adding more restrictions on music and dance holds. In June 1993, the ISU decreed that free dance music must have a rhythmic beat and a melody and be arranged and orchestrated for use on the dance floor. Amid complaints that ice dance had become too boring, these restrictions were removed and replaced with requirements that dancers include specified technical elements in the original dance and free dance. Dance lifts, dance spins, and twizzles became required elements. In the original dance and later short dance, a no-touching step sequence was added to evaluate whether both partners are on the same level technically, while other step sequences are in holds.

Ice dance was introduced into the Winter Olympics starting with the 1976 edition, and all but two gold medals had been won by Soviet/CIS/Russian pairs. However, skaters from the Four Continents have become more competitive since the 2000s in what was termed a "dance revolution" by ESPN; with Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto taking silver in the 2006 Winter Olympics. In the 2010 Winter Olympics, Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir of Canada took gold, ending Europe's 34 year streak. These Canadians were also the youngest skaters (aged 20 and 22 years of age, respectively) to win the title. The pair was also the first former World Junior Champion dance team to win the Olympic gold medal, the first pair to win the gold on an Olympic debut, and the first team to win the Olympic gold on home ice.