Dancing on Thin Ice
/In the fall of 2019, we were contacted by email asking to take two famous British figure skaters dog mushing in search of a remote pond on which to go ice skating. I remember forwarding the message to my British sister-in-law, Cass, and asking if it seemed legit. It’s not uncommon to get strange emails, and more often than not they don’t pan out into worthwhile endeavors. Cass eagerly replied, yes, Torvill and Dean are very accomplished figure skaters! Directors Emma Frank and Helena Braun traveled to Two Rivers in the fall to scout out the filming possibilities. I took them for a short dryland mush (in a side by side) around the neighborhood, said goodbye, and wondered if we’d hear from them again.
After a few emails back and forth speculating weather and conditions, Torvill and Dean and a host of filming personnel arrived at the kennel one day. Even then, I don’t think I fully grasped the accomplishments of Torvill and Dean. This was partially due to their personable, down-to-earth demeanors, and also me living in my own bubble. Perhaps it was good that I didn’t do much research ahead of time, otherwise I would have been begging for autographs and acting like a crazy fan.
Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean are gold medal figure skaters, winning the highest score of all time in the 1984 Winter Olympics at Sarajevo for their performance to Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. And they sat on my dog-hair-covered couch, enthusiastically interacting with the dogs, and not letting on that they were celebrities.
After an afternoon of filming, the crew had enough clips to add a portion on dog mushing to their production- Dancing on Thin Ice. Currently, the production has only aired in England; however, it will hopefully be broadcast in the United States. While looking for a wilderness location to skate their gold medal Bolero, Torvill and Dean also touch on climate change and melting ice in the North. We thoroughly enjoyed being a part of it, and can now claim we’ve met gold medal Olympians!
Fall 2019
The Olympic champions travel to Alaska on an extraordinary quest to fulfill a lifelong dream. But will warming temperatures ruin their hopes to skate the Bolero in the remote wilderness?
