Thank you very much for sharing this video. I've never seen this as I don't live in Britain. Not sure what year this was. However they were either just before or after age 50. When I was young that was already considered old. Possibly not so much now. But it would have been unheard of 40 or 50 years ago experience such a performance by people of their age. They were sent by the gods of the universe. In one century there were Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire on the Ballroom floor and then came Jane Torville and Christopher Dean doing what their predecessors did and more ON ICE. And I lived to see it. For me they are miraculous and I doubt we will see such beauty and perfection again. There are indeed many good skaters but there was something magical about their coming together, the blend of personalities and character, the incredible chemistry between them that was palpable on the ice along with the coaches and support they had. In addition their sense for Costume, Music, Coreography were genius as well. I had been watching Ice Dancing since years when I first saw them 1980 on tele in Geneva where I then lived. I had no idea where they would go but for me they not only towered over the others they had something I had not felt before. From that year on I longed for every competition to see them skate. They had some formidable competition but non were like them. Their genius challenged all those that skated in competition with them to be better and so we saw some pretty phenomenal performances. Torville and Dean...... forever in my heart. Thank you.
It makes you cry when they do the fall at the because it feels as they are taking the leap into the bowling of the valcano and their death together. It was à beautiful performance and so well done.
How stupid of the people who did this show to have all those skaters staying on the ice and moving around distracting Jayne and Chris and the viewers !
+ Glenn Lennox Thank you. I was just thinking that as I watched. Not only distracting but potentially dangerous. I felt Chris held back just a tad because of this. The rink is smaller and they needed every cm/inch. Possibly someone in the group or direction from elsewhere noticed this as at the last moment the all went up upon the stairs out of the actual skating space. Laymen do not realise how dangerous skating can be. Also because they are genius and have always made it look easy most have not idea how incredibly difficult it is especially achieving the perfection they have throughout their skating careers.
I'd like to point out that Jayne and Chris choreographed and staged every single one of their performances on Dancing On Ice from day one, so I'm pretty sure I can say with absolute certainty that the decision to have all of those people there on the ice with them was entirely their own. If you watched closely, you would have noticed that the extras moved positions multiple times throughout the different sections of the dance, moving to different places on the outskirts of the stage and even off the ice at certain points. This was evidently choreographed because each time new space became available, Jayne and Chris skated into those places. Believing that those extras would be enough to distract trained professionals, that had been masters of their craft for over thirty years when this performance took place, does both of them a great disservice. They choreographed and performed an incredible performance with poise, precision and finesse. If there was anything in this performance that could be considered severely dangerous, it would not have been done.
What spoils this performance for me is the audience clapping at every lift, so annoying and distracting. When Jane and Chris performed this at the Olympics there was complete silence from the spectators until the end.
