JADAR

★★★★★

Torvill and Dean – Jayne Torvill OBE and Christopher Dean OBE – are the Queen and King of ice dancing. But after 50 years on the ice, they are hanging up their skates once and for all – but not before embarking on a huge arena tour of the UK and Australia, in which they are joined by a spectacular supporting cast of ice dancers, including some fellow Dancing on Ice favourites.

I’ve never actually seen much Dancing on Ice (I’m a Strictly boy) but I was aware of its iconic status. My friend and occasional writer, Madison Emmett, is a lifelong Dancing on Ice fan and needed to see Torvill and Dean before they retired. My only experience with ice skating was Disney on Ice (I tried ice skating once as a teenager and never went back!) so I did not know quite what to expect… But by the end of the show, I was converted. What a shame Dancing on Ice ended its run earlier this year!

The show opened with ‘The Greatest Show’ from The Greatest Showman. When we found out that that song was being used in the show, our eyes rolled to the back of our hears; it’s so overused in dance shows. However, this was, by far, the best routine I have seen to that song outside of the version in the film. It was a big, fiery number that could have only been improved with actual fire and pyrotechnics. Torvill and Dean led the number, with the other dancers following their lead like civilians following a monarch or a God. At one point, the entire cast skated backwards; it was thrilling.

This number set the bar very high but the show somehow kept it at that level. There was a great variety, from solos to couple’s dances, to two couple’s dances, to more big great numbers.

Torvill and Dean let their supporting cast do the more impressive routines. Their age was felt next to these fit youngsters, but whilst they cannot move like they once could, it is incredibly impressive – and a testament to their training and skill – that two people approaching 70 can still move the way that they do. The show closed with Dean lifting Torvill’s leg in the air (as Cher asked, “What’s your grandma doing tonight?!”).

Torvill and Dean occasionally appeared onstage and spoke to us. This intimacy was nicely contrasted with the dazzling numbers. They also narrated the show via pre-recorded videos. Doing both felt a little inconsistent, and it might have been nicer to have them narrate the entire show in person, especially because they weren’t onstage that much in general. But I appreciate that there was a lot of info they wanted to give out, so using pre-recorded videos was safer.

After the opening number, we were taken right back to the beginning, with Darcy Walshaw and Hugo Brooks playing Young Jayne and Chris (Isla Forsyth and Lewis Macdonald are doing some other cities). Dancing on Ice judge/coach Karen Barber played their trainer. It was lovely seeing two exceptionally talented kids get the opportunity to show off their skill at the second biggest arena in the UK and third biggest in Europe!

Every number represented something in Torvill and Dean’s life, sometimes just thematically. The movie number, though fun ad theatrical, had one performer dressed as an Arab (though possibly Lawrence of Arabia) and another as a Native American, which is a bit awkward this day in age – especially the latter, given many indigenous Americans’ objection to their culture being turned into a costume.

Other group numbers were a records archive, a circus (which closed Act 1), planets in orbit (which opened Act 2), and a 1920s bar, before they poetically closed Our Last Dance with Donna Summer’s ‘Last Dance’.

The highlight of the show, though, had to be the penultimate performance, in which Torvill and Dean performed their Gold Medal-winning routine to Maurice Ravel’s ‘Boléro’ at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics – which is one of the most-watched TV moments in UK history. Through video, they told us that the original song is 17 minutes long, and an arranger managed to get it down to 4 minutes 28 seconds, which was still too long for the Olympics – so they started the routine on their knees as the clock does not start until your skates hit the ice!

They did not begin this performance on their knees but instead skated out of the doors a short while after the music started playing. They did, however, end on the floor, which was dramatic and striking but also represented them saying goodbye to this life.

The cast was made up of Vanessa Bauer, Andy Buchanan, Annette Dytrt, Mark Hanretty, Vanessa James, Robin Johnstone, Sylvain Longchambon, Eric Radford, Łukasz Różyck (also skate technician), Alexandra Schauman, and Dan Whiston (also associate choreographer), alongside Tim Koleto, Misato Komatsubara, Mirai Nagasu, and Philip Warren.

We were also treated to a sublime James Bond-inspired number by Phebe Bekker and James Hernandez (“stars of the future” – with Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby doing some other cities). This was probably my favourite couple’s routine.

My favourite couple, in general, was Eric Radford and Vanessa James, who performed two all-black sexxxy routines (to ‘Relax’ by Frankie Goes to Hollywood and ‘Silhouette’ by Aquilo).

The best solos had to be Philip’s flip-filled routine to ‘The Fear’ by The Score and Dan’s aerial to ‘Send in the Clowns’ (supported by Alexandra and Lukasz).

That said, every single routine was a hit.

Speaking of hits, the soundtrack was absolutely spectacular. We needed some mash to go along with all those bangers! Kudos to Ian Masterson for his superb music supervision.

The creative team, as a whole, deserve great praise – and individual shout outs.

The show is directed by Richard Curwen, with associate direction by Heidi Shepherd, and choreographed by Christopher Dean, with associate choreography by Dan Whiston. Karen Barber is the Head Coach and Performance Director. Lighting design comes from Richard Jones, lighting programming from Fraser Walker, costume design by Stephen Adnitt, wardrobe supervision by Laura Ergis, video design by Leo Flint, video animation by Luke Davies and Amanda Tooke, video design by Leo Flint, PMTV by Lindsay Jex, archive production by Melanie Timson, camera direction by Michael Hines, script supervision by Annie McDougall, and skate tech by Łukasz Różyck.

Madison and I went into this show as a Dancing on Ice fanatic and a Dancing on Ice semi-virgin, but I left a convert – and she left partially in mourning but also fulfilled that she got to see Torvill and Dean before they retired.

Our Last Dance is a fun, fabulous, fitting farewell for the greatest ice dancers that ever lived, accompanied by the current crème de la crème of the sport.

Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance – 50th Anniversary Tour tours the UK and Australia until July 12.

Photo: Phil Hill – PH Balance