Skating legends prepare for emotional farewell in home city of Nottingham
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean bring their final UK tour to a close in Nottingham
One of Britain’s most iconic sporting partnerships will come to an end this summer, as Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean bring their final UK tour to a close in their home city of Nottingham.
The ice dancing pair, who became household names after winning gold at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo with their performance to Ravel’s Bolero, announced their retirement from skating together earlier this year—exactly 40 years after their Olympic triumph.
Torvill, 67, described the farewell tour as a significant moment. “I’m sure it will be emotional. At the moment, we’re just kind of excited and eager to get going,” she said. “But I think as time goes on, we realise that, ‘Oh, actually, we’re heading towards the last couple of dates in Nottingham’, it will become quite emotional.”
The final three performances of Torvill And Dean: Our Last Dance will take place at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham in July. “The arena is on the same site that the ice stadium used to be when Jayne and I started out all those years ago, so it feels like the perfect way to bring everything to a close,” said Dean, 66.
Reflecting on their decision to retire, Torvill said: “We thought about retiring this year and it was poignant, because it’s 50 years since we started skating together. It felt like the right time, but we wanted to sort of mark it with doing one last final tour while we’re still able to perform in a way that we’re happy with.”
She also spoke about her continued friendship with Dean: “Outside of work we’re the best of friends, anyway. I think, we’ll still do other things, just not performing on the ice. You know, we might do speaking, any other things that come up.”
Dean added: “We will always see each other and always be connected in some way.” He described the final show as “a retrospective storytelling of our career from the very beginning until modern day.”
Torvill and Dean achieved success at World, European and British Championships throughout the early 1980s, and later returned to the Olympics in 1994, where they claimed bronze before retiring from competition.
They continued to perform in touring shows, and became known to a new generation of fans as mentors and judges on ITV’s Dancing On Ice, which first aired in 2006. After a break, they returned as head judges in 2018. ITV recently announced the show had been “rested”, with this year’s final marking what was described as “their last ever TV performance”.
Their farewell tour, Torvill And Dean: Our Last Dance, begins on Friday at the OVO Arena Wembley, with dates also scheduled in cities including London, Belfast, Newcastle and Glasgow. The show will also feature Dancing On Ice stars Vanessa Bauer, Andy Buchanan and Mark Hanretty.
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