Tightlaced Theatre

At tonight’s session we were doing some work on trust, sensory perception and physical relationships and somehow this led on to a discussion about ice dance. As these things do… Inevitably, the words “ice dance” set me off on my Torvill and Dean Were Amazingly Amazing rant, which leads straight to this post.

I first became aware of Torvill and Dean when I was about 11 and they had come out of retirement to compete in the Winter Olympics at… Lillehammer? Sarajevo? Both of those are ringing bells for some reason. Anyway, I thought they were magical. I loved their style, their perfect sychronisation, the way their music was not just a backdrop but an integrated part of the routine. Years later I realised that I could look up their other routines through the wonders of YouTube, and I discovered a world of wonderful dances that I  had never seen before.

The point of this post is not to consider the meticulous details and massive amounts of practise necessary to achieve these results. No, this is about something every bit as important but much trickier to pin down – trust, familiarity and putting your performance in the hands of the other person. Neither is in their own bubble, neither is performing independently of the other. Skaters have to work that way, to some extent, because their physical safety is interdependent, but this goes beyond just safety considerations. That ability to perform together, truly together, with each other and with their music, is what lifts their routines from being demonstrations of technical prowess to being art.

So here are some videos. First and most famous, the Bolero:

Next Mack and Mabel, because I love the way they pay homage to the films that form the basis for the musical:

The Rhumba. Watch how they breathe together at the start:

And finally, Song of India. Slow, sustained, connected and utterly beautiful: