The Greatest of all Time Debate: Ice Dance Bonus Comparison!


       

                          Virtue and Moir polka to the leadPerfect edges, perfect skaters Blues compulsory - 1994 Olympics

Oftentimes, the best way to compare two ice dance couples is by watching compulsory dances. Compulsory dances required couples to dance to the same steps in the same rhythm as all other couples competing. Because of that, the proficiency of skaters from across different eras can be pretty easily compared when watching a compulsory dance.

The great news is that Torvill & Dean and Virtue & Moir both competed compulsories for four years and so there is a plethora of videos of them both doing compulsories. The only downside is that Virtue & Moir were quite young in most of them and so their full capabilities are not as accurately represented as Torvill & Dean's. Even still, the ability to compare apples to apples in any way is really appreciated when talking about two of the best couples to grace the ice.

I'll be putting the videos to each matching compulsory that there is for these two couples as well as their ages when doing them so that you can see for yourself the skating skills for each. As a note: I've also included a clip or two of Virtue/Moir performing the compulsory at a slightly older age if possible. It's hard to judge two couples if they performed the dances at two different ages. As for why Virtue and Moir were repeating compulsories: as soon as the Short Dance was introduced, the International Skating Union (ISU) assigned compulsories for the short dance that were used fairly recently. The first four short dances between 2011-2014 all featured compulsories performed between 2007-2010. The ISU didn't think these things through.

Blues Compulsory: Torvill/Dean are 36/35, Virtue/Moir are 15/17

 


Paso Doble Compulsory: Torvill/Dean are 26/25, Virtue/Moir are 19/21

 

Rhumba Compulsory: Torvill/Dean are 26/25, Virtue/Moir are 17/19 in the full video. I also included a clip of Virtue/Moir's rhumba in their short dance in 2018 since all the other videos are of them much younger. In the clip of 2018, Virtue/Moir are 28/30.

 



Yankee Polka Compulsory: Torvill/Dean are 24/23, Virtue/Moir are 18/20. I'm also including a small clip of Virtue/Moir performing the Yankee Polka when they were the same age (23/25) as Torvill/Dean. Hooray for equal experience comparisons!

 



Tango Romantica Compulsory: These videos show the teams fairly close in age as well. Torvill/Dean are 22/21 and Virtue/Moir are 20/22. It's also one of my personal favorite compulsories.

 

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