Any figure skating fans here...?

[Skybird]

My dear, I just spend a record time of close to two hours at youtube this evening, watching old figure skating (ice dancing) videos from the mid and late 80s.

I never did ice skating myself, but at that time, I was a great fan of it and loved to watch it. Three couples stood high above the rest of the pack.

My first season when I totally engaged in observing the scene was the Olympic season of 1984 which was the farewell year of Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean. What I knew about them were their performances of that year from all three championships (world, Europe, Olympics), and of course their Bolero that I still know inside out. I like their two major show programs of that year, too, but never knew what they were. Now I watched plenty of the other stuff from the three years before, and just realized what an outstanding position they rightfully deserve in the history of this sports. Especially the operetta they did (Mick and Mack, or something like this), also is fantastic, and beyond any standards of that time. So much British style, so much esprit, and outstanding choreography. Also, this is the one couple where there does not seem to be the typical separation: man= background, girl=performer and eye-catcher. As a commentator said, you watch the man as much as you watch the girl. They really had class in the best meaning of the word. I like their way of dancing very much.



But 1984 was not only the farewell of these two great British champions, but also marked the debut of another outstanding couple on the international stage for whom the future held great promises: Marina Klimova and Sergej Ponomarenko from the Soviet Union. Marina easily and hands down being the most beautiful advertising for the USSR I have ever seen ! Their style was very untypical for the Soviet couples of that time, very soft, elegant, sometimes unusually slow (but technically nevertheless highly demanding), unbelievably full of expression, and highly emotional and romantic. No other couple of that time showed so very much influence by classical ballet (and no other one was so potent in doing classical ballet). And look at that 17 year old Marina! A most charming girl of fragile beauty, she did so much not only with her feet and legs, but with her face, head and hands as well, without letting it appear as artificial, exaggerated. Extremely tender, gentle and feminine - my alltime favourite in this sports, really. I like some of their show programs even better than their competition programs. I also remember what an almost speechless German commentator said after their exhibition at the world championships: "Marina Klimova tanzt so charmant wie ein verliebtes Glühwürmchen." (Marina dances as charming as a firefly in love). Needless to say that that boy that I was was terribly in love with her



And then there were the two rebellious French, the Duchesnays, brother and sister, the only ones who ever were able to interrupt the series of victories by Klimova/Ponomarenko, and they really rocked the scene in 1988 and 1989. They set up a fight against the crusty reglement, left the amateur scene and changed to the pros in protest against the judges, and their performances, especially the Tango and the jungle dance, were new, technically difficult (some said the most difficult piece ever done on the ice until then), and carried away the audience in enthusiasm. How much scandal and protest there was when they were mercilessly rated back by those idiotic judges in their first season!
It really appeared as a natural thing that two such talented figure skaters like Christopher dean and Isabelle Duchesnay became a couple not only on the ice, but also in private, but the marriage lasted only two or three years.



It felt so good and was so much joy to see all this great stuff again! Ice dancing is a wonderful sport and art at the same time. For some reason, I have completely lost track of it. The new point scoring system is mystery to me. with the old one I was able to match the mean scores +/- 0.1 with my own private "scoring".

There also was a couple from America, I think, who performed the Scheherazade in 1984. But I forgot their names. Does anyone know who they were? I think they came in fourth.