Ice Skating champions Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean have returned to Sarajevo the city where they achieved Gold at the Winter Olympics 30 years ago. The pair, originally from Nottingham, commemorated their 30th anniversary by recreating the famous Bolero dance which wowed both judges and audiences alike. The decision to once again perform the famous piece was made after invitations from the Mayors of Sarajevo. The pair performed their dance in the same stadium that marks their Olympic success the Olympic Hall Zetra which has now been renamed the Olympic Hall Juan Antonio Samaranch after the former International Olympic Committee President.
The pair catapulted to fame when on Valentine’s Day in 1984 they performed a dance to Ravel’s Bolero. The judges were so impressed that they received 12 perfect scores of 6.0 out of a possible 18 with sixes from all nine judges for artistic impression, something that had not yet been seen before. The pair although exhausted having been up since 3:30am are excited about returning to Sarajevo and have claimed that the performance will be as “close to the original as possible”.
The pair has gone on to have a successful career since their meeting at their local Nottingham Arena and have been skating together since 1976. Recently they are known as both presenters and creative directors for the popular ITV programme Dancing on Ice. Although retiring from professional skating in 1998 it is with the upcoming final series of the programme that the pair says they will retire for good. Torvill who lives in Surrey and Dean who is currently residing in the US say they want to end their career on a high and be remembered like famous dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The pair also marked their Olympics win anniversary on the show with a passionate dance to Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s The Power of Love.
