Olympic ice skater Jayne Torvill has said her farewell tour with Christopher Dean will “become quite emotional” as they approach their final UK performance, taking place in their home city of Nottingham.
The duo wrote their names in British sporting history at the 1984 Winter Games following their routine to Ravel’s Bolero at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Sarajevo.
They are now set to embark on their final UK tour, after announcing their retirement from skating together in 2024, 40 years on from their Olympic gold success.
Torvill, 67, told the PA news agency: “I’m sure it will be emotional. At the moment, we’re just kind of excited and eager to get going.
“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.”
She added: “I think we knew we couldn’t keep going forever, and we’re lucky that we’ve been able to keep going this long, really.
“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.”
Reflecting on her friendship with Dean, Torvill added: “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.
“We always like doing something a little different, but we realise it’s time to not be doing performances anymore.”
“We will always see each other and always be connected in some way”, Dean told PA.
The 66-year-old described the show as “a retrospective storytelling of our career from the very beginning until modern day”.
The UK leg of Torvill And Dean: Our Last Dance culminates with three performances at the Motorpoint Arena Nottingham in July.
Dean said: “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.”
As well as securing an Olympic gold, the pair had success at the World, European and British Championships during the early part of the 1980s.
They also competed in the 1994 Winter Olympics, where they won bronze before retiring from competition.
They later branched out into touring, coaching and choreographing before becoming the faces of ITV’s Dancing On Ice, which ran from 2006 until 2014, and later becoming head judges on the show when it was revived in 2018.
ITV recently announced the show had been “rested”, and this year’s final saw Torvill and Dean take to the ice rink for what was described as “their last ever TV performance”.
Vanessa Bauer, Andy Buchanan and Mark Hanretty are among the stars of the reality show who will feature as part of the tour’s skating team.
Torvill And Dean: Our Last Dance includes dates in London, Belfast, Newcastle and Glasgow and will celebrate 50 years since they formed their skating partnership in 1975.
The tour kicks off on Friday at the OVO Arena Wembley.
