Ice Dance

figure skating · ballroom · Winter Olympics · partnership

Dancing on Ice. Ice dance is a type of figure skating where a man and woman skate together as a team, performing movements inspired by ballroom dancing. They create beautiful patterns and stories on the frozen ice while staying in close partnership.

Olympic Sport. Ice dance became an official Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. Before that, skaters performed it at World Championships starting in 1952, but it didn't get its moment on the biggest Olympic stage for nearly 25 years.

Choreographed Routines. Unlike other figure skating events, ice dance focuses on telling a story through planned movements and patterns. Judges watch how well the partners move together, how they interpret the music, and how synchronized and graceful their performance looks.

Team of Two. Every ice dance team has exactly one woman and one man who practice together for years. They develop incredible teamwork and trust because their success depends entirely on skating perfectly in sync with each other.