Beginnings , a version of the Jackson Haines waltz developed in Sweden, and the three-step waltz, which Hines considers "the direct predecessor of ice dancing in the modern sense". The three-step waltz, which was done around the perimeter of the ice rink, was first skated in 1894 in Paris and within a few years became a craze throughout Europe. By the end of the 19th century, the three-step waltz, called the English waltz in Europe, became the standard for waltzing competitions. It was first skated in Paris in 1894; Hines states that it was responsible for the popularity of ice dance in Europe. The three-step waltz was easy and could be done by less skilled skaters, although more experienced skaters added variations to make it more difficult. Two other steps, the
killian and the ten-step, survived into the 20th century. The ten-step, which became the fourteen-step, was first skated by Franz Schöller in 1889. Also in the 1890s, combined and hand-in-hand skating moved skating away from basic figures to the continuous movement of ice dancers around an ice rink. Hines insists that the popularity of skating waltzes, which depended upon the speed and flow across the ice of couples in dance positions and not just on holding hands with a partner, ended the popularity of hand-in-hand skating. Hines writes that Vienna was "the dancing capital of Europe, both on and off skates" during the 19th century; by the end of the century, waltzing competitions became popular throughout the world. The killian, first skated in 1909 by Austrian
Karl Schreiter, was the last ice dance invented before
World War I still being done as of the 21st century.
Early years and
Pavel Roman in 1965 By the early 1900s, ice dance was popular around the world and was primarily a recreational sport, although during the 1920s, local clubs in Britain and the U.S. conducted informal dance contests in the ten-step, the fourteen-step, and the killian, which were the only three dances used in competition until the 1930s. Recreational skating became more popular during the 1930s in England, and new and more difficult set-pattern dances, which later were used in compulsory dances during competitions, were developed. According to Hines, the development of new ice dances was necessary to expand upon the three dances already developed; three British teams in the 1930s—
Erik van der Wyden and
Eva Keats,
Reginald Wilkie and
Daphne B. Wallis, and
Robert Dench and
Rosemarie Stewart—created one-fourth of the dances used in
International Skating Union (ISU) competitions by 2006. In 1933, the Westminster Skating Club conducted a competition encouraging the creation of new dances. Beginning in the mid-1930s, national organizations began to introduce skating proficiency tests in set-pattern dances, improve the judging of dance tests, and oversee competitions. The first national competitions occurred in England in 1934, Canada in 1935, the U.S. in 1936, and Austria in 1937. These competitions included one or more compulsory dances, the original dance, and the free dance. By the late 1930s, ice dancers swelled memberships in skating clubs throughout the world, and in Hines' words "became the backbone of skating clubs". The ISU began to develop rules, standards, and international tests for ice dance in the 1950s. The first international ice dance competition occurred as a special event during the
1950 World Figure Skating Championships in London;
Lois Waring and
Michael McGean of the U.S. won the event, much to the embarrassment of the British, who considered themselves the best ice dancers in the world. A second event was planned the following year, at the
1951 World Championships in Milan;
Jean Westwood and
Lawrence Demmy of Great Britain came in first place. Ice dance, with the CD and FD segments, was formally added to the
World Championships in 1952. Westwood and Demmy won that year, and went on to dominate ice dance, winning the next four World Championships as well. British teams won every world ice dance title through 1960.
Eva Romanova and
Pavel Roman of Czechoslovakia were the first non-British ice dancers to win a world title, in 1962.
1970s to 1990s Ice dance became an Olympic sport in 1976;
Lyudmila Pakhomova and
Alexandr Gorshkov from the Soviet Union were the first gold medalists. The Soviets dominated ice dance during most of the 1970s, as they did in pair skating. They won every Worlds and Olympic title between 1970 and 1978, and won medals at every competition between 1976 and 1982. In 1984, British dancers
Jayne Torvill and
Christopher Dean, whom Hines calls "the greatest ice dancers in the history of the sport", briefly interrupted Soviet domination of ice dance by winning a gold medal at the
Olympic Games in Sarajevo. Their free dance to
Ravel's Boléro has been called "probably the most well known single program in the history of ice dance". Hines asserts that Torvill and Dean, with their innovative choreography, dramatically altered "established concepts of ice dancing". performing in 2011 During the 1970s, there was a movement in ice dance away from its ballroom roots to a more theatrical style. The top Soviet teams were the first to emphasize the dramatic aspects of ice dance, as well as the first to choreograph their programs around a central theme. They also incorporated elements of
ballet techniques, especially "the classic ballet
pas de deux of the high-art instance of a man and woman dancing together". They performed as predictable characters, included body positions that were no longer rooted in traditional ballroom holds, and used music with less predictable rhythms. Kestnbaum argues that there was a conflict in the ice dance community between social dance, represented by the British, the Canadians, and the Americans, and theatrical dance represented by the Russians. Initially the historic and traditional cultural school of ice dance prevailed, but in 1998 the ISU reduced penalties for violations and relaxed rules on technical content, in what Hines describes as a "major step forward" in recognizing the move towards more theatrical skating in ice dance. At the
1998 Olympics, while ice dance was struggling to retain its integrity and legitimacy as a sport, writer Jere Longman reported that ice dance was "mired in controversies", including bloc voting by the judges that favored European dance teams. There were even calls to suspend the sport for a year to deal with the dispute, which seemed to impact ice dance teams from North America the most. A series of judging scandals in the late 1990s and early 2000s, affecting most figure skating disciplines, culminated in a
controversy at the 2002 Olympics.
21st century and
Scott Moir are the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history. The European dominance of ice dance was interrupted at the
2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver by Canadians
Tessa Virtue and
Scott Moir and Americans
Meryl Davis and
Charlie White. The Canadian ice dance team won the first Olympic ice dance gold medal for North America, and the Americans won the silver. Russians
Oksana Domnina and
Maxim Shabalin won bronze, but it was the first time Europeans had not won a gold medal in the history of ice dance at the Olympics. The U.S. began to dominate international competitions in ice dance; at the
2014 Olympics in Sochi, Davis and White won the Olympic gold medal. In 2018, at the
Olympics in Pyeongchang, Virtue and Moir became the most decorated figure skaters in Olympic history after winning the gold medal there. In 2022,
Gabriella Papadakis and
Guillaume Cizeron of France won the Olympic gold medal; they went on to win the gold medal at the World championships a few months later, ending the North American domination on ice dance. Papadakis and Cizeron broke the
world record at both events. In October 2022,
Skate Canada, the federation that oversees figure skating in Canada, changed the wording in its by-laws to make ice dance teams composed of any "two skaters", without reference to gender. According to reporter JZ Goh, the rule change meant that teams no longer must be made up of one man and one woman, allowing same-gender and
non-binary teams to compete at all levels in Canada. According to Caroline Silby, a consultant with
U.S. Figure Skating, ice dance teams and pair skaters have the added challenge of strengthening partnerships and ensuring that teams stay together for several years; unresolved conflict between partners can often cause the early break-up of a team. Silby further asserts that the early demise or break-up of a team is often caused by consistent and unresolved conflict between partners. Both ice dancers and pairs skaters face challenges that make conflict resolution and communication difficult: fewer available boys for girls to partner with; different priorities regarding commitment and scheduling; differences in partners' ages and developmental stages; differences in family situations; the common necessity of one or both partners moving to train at a new facility; and different skill levels when the partnership is formed. Silby estimates that the lack of effective communication within dance and pairs teams is associated with a six-fold increase in the risk of ending their partnerships. Teams with strong skills in communication and conflict resolution, however, tend to produce more successful medalists at national championship events. ==Competition segments==