The Ice King (2018) - full transcript

MUSIC: Afternoon Of A Fawn
by Claude Debussy

The life of a competitive figure
skater is like a monk.

When there's ice, you go and you
skate on it,

11 o'clock at night, 12 o'clock at
night, one o'clock at night.

There is no opportunity
for friends and family.

If you fall, nobody's going to pick
you up.

It's only you.

You live, breathe, and die alone.

Our castaway this week is the best

skater in the world,
and his name is John Curry.

I wanted to be a dancer.



I was allowed to ice skate.

Because it was a sport,
they thought it was OK.

John was the first one to really
merge this deep expressiveness

of dance

with the athletic virtuosity
of skating.

in a different way.

He was breaking ground as an artist

and as a star athlete.

He said, "Whatever greatness
you think I have,

"there are demons of equal value
that are inside of my soul."

POLICE SIRENS, HORN BEEPS

Summer 1971,
John appears on our doorstep.

All he had were his skates
and his talent.

He needed a place to stay,
rent-free,



and my mother often opened our house
to skaters.

He was very shy at first.

It took him a long time to open up.

All of a sudden, he just started
to click with all of us.

And most importantly,
he clicked with my mother.

I think the really amazing thing is
that he shared with my mother that

he wanted to not just be a
competitive skater

and go for the Olympics,

but that he had
a vision beyond that,

which was to create a theatre of
skating and a dance company.

She believed in him in a way that
no-one else did at that time.

Dear Nancy. It seems more like five
weeks than five days

since I left you
in the enchanted city.

My heart aches for New York.

In a strange way, I feel
that England has betrayed me.

I can't quite explain it,

but as time goes by,
perhaps I'll find the words.

They were like kindred artistic
souls.

As soon as the competitive season
was over, back to New York

he would come, to kind of recharge
and refuel.

I really think that he felt in our
home

a calm that he had not experienced
growing up at all.

CLASSICAL HARP

Well, I was first drawn to dancing
and acting,

and I asked if I could go to
ballet classes.

I remember being taken into the
sitting room and my mother saying,

"Can I take John to ballet lessons?"

And my father getting quite cross
and saying,

"No, absolutely could not."

And that was the end of that.
And it was never brought up again.

Richard Button of Philadelphia,
who is North American and...

When I saw ice skating on the
television a little later,

I asked if I could go skating
and I was told "yes."

Because ice skating is protected
by the umbrella of sport.

..1947 World Championships and will
represent us when the Olympic

contestants gather
from all parts of the world.

I remember very clearly the very
first time

I put a pair of skates on.

I had a teacher that held my hand.

I said, "Oh, no, you don't need to
hold my hand. I can do this."

And I just skated off.

From then on, we used to take him
twice a week, or I had,

just as a hobby.

He was very interested and always
wanted to skate

a bit more than anybody else.

Just as a seven-year-old,
I started to think of skating

as being a dancing on the ice. I
didn't think of it as anything else.

One Christmas time, I was given £5
to buy something for myself

by my father. And I went and
bought...

Don't ask me why I chose them,

maybe it had to do with the covers
of the records,

but I chose Scheherazade,

The Nutcracker, and Swan Lake, none
of which I'd ever heard before.

I was very, very pleased and excited
by what I'd bought.

And I went to my father and showed
him what I'd bought,

and he was very disappointed.
And he said, "Oh, dear.

"I thought you might buy something
you'd keep."

I think John had a very difficult
childhood because of his father.

And skating became the escape.

I was always pretty private as a
child.

And the ice only made that easier
for me, in a way.

It was my world where I could go
and be free and alone.

To me, the music said exactly what
it wanted me to do.

When I stopped looking
like a little boy

and started to look like a young
man,

then suddenly all the things
that I had done up until then,

absolutely with everyone's blessing,

I was told I should stop doing.

I was told I shouldn't use my arms,
I shouldn't do spirals,

I shouldn't try and make everything
look so effortless and graceful.

I was actually told
not to be so graceful.

And I couldn't understand why.

And it was because they couldn't
accept it from a young man,

which they could from a child.

Men who choose to love other men are
treated not only

with intolerance and contempt,
but prosecuted and jailed.

It's estimated
that one man in 20 is a homosexual.

For many of us, this is revolting,
men dancing with men.

Homosexuals in this country today
break the law.

I can't imagine what John must have
felt to have realised that you're

different and that difference is
something that is looked down upon

with shame and loathing.

There may be some in this
auditorium.

There may be some here today that
will be homosexual in the future.

There may be some girls that will
turn lesbian.

But it's serious.
Don't kid yourselves about it.

So if any one of you have let
yourself become involved

with another boy,
you better stop quick,

because one out of three of you
will turn queer.

The rest of your life will be
a living hell.

I saw him in Prague.

I must have been about 16, 17.

And John was maybe a year younger.

I just saw him on the ice
and I thought it was so natural,

and so wonderful.

Beautiful arms, a great back,
and the head up.

It was just perfect.

It was just so different
to anyone else.

Two more minutes of this five-minute
programme left...

I just went up to him and asked him,

would he think that it's possible

that I come and train
at the same rink

as he is in England?

And then he said, "Yeah."

I could come for a summer vacation.

I've asked John if I could live
maybe with him.

Mrs Curry said yes.

I never knew that he was gay then.

That came later on
when he lived in London.

Youth, the swinging youth,

who have given staid and sober old
London its recent swinging metaphor.

Out of the blue he said,
"Oh, I fancy you."

I thought, "What does that mean?"

I soon found out.

I just hugged him and kissed him
and that was when it started.

Yeah, I started to become
in love with him.

John came home, put on music.

He danced and he choreographed
in the living room.

I think he was also deeply in love.

Switzerland and London wasn't
next door to one another.

We wrote to one another.

It was almost the daily thing to do.

Dear Heinz.

I guess it will be Saturday or maybe
Friday when you receive this letter.

I always feel very lonely
on Friday nights.

In the week, there is skating
and work, but the weekend,

I have time to think.

Thinking is the worst thing
a person can do...!

I just want to hold you and feel
your arms around me,

just to feel you love me.

I think he was very often depressed.

Very often.

I got a job in a supermarket.

I was always absolutely stony broke.

I used to really worry most of the
time about money

rather than worrying
about skating. It was very hard.

I trained at Richmond ice rink,
which is a good ice rink,

but is open to the public.

And there's just no way you can
train

in a public session
with 300 or 400 people.

Everything was unpleasant, you know?

It just wasn't nice at all and
I really got quite turned off to it.

Dear Heinz.

I'm sorry about my shaky writing,

but I worked so hard this morning
and I haven't stopped shaking yet.

I did figures from 6:15am to 7:45am,
more figures 8:20am to 9:10am.

Then I free skating
from 9:15am to 12:30pm.

I wanted to ask you
if I could borrow some money.

I have very little left and
I think Mr Gerschwiler

may stop teaching me
until I repay him.

I've had the most frightening dreams
again.

I dream my father comes into the
bedroom and wakes me up -

and then I do wake up, I think,
and I see him still there,

but I think I'm still asleep
and that I only dream I wake up.

I just know that his father was
dead. He died somehow.

He didn't want to talk about it.

He just said he died
in not very nice circumstances.

And that was the end of it.

His father's death had a big impact
on him,

even though the thought that it was
a suicide

was something that he had
a very difficult time accepting.

There was a relief in a way
that might horrify some people,

but he was totally relieved.

CHA-CHA MUSIC PLAYS

We went out together sometimes
in London.

Then he met other guys also.

Dear Heinz.

I don't know quite how to start,
so...

My last letter came to you
from London -

I'd been wandering about all day.

I went into the Colville and that is
where I met Gilles.

I didn't think I'd get entangled
because he's so good-looking.

I thought he must be able to have
any boy he wanted.

But it hasn't worked out like that.

I'm living with him at weekends, and
in August I'm moving in completely.

You must be very angry with me,
and I cannot blame you.

I would like to have you always
as my friend,

but I have no right even to that.

I didn't take much notice then.

I just thought,
"Oh, it's another one."

I much rather would have had him
for myself.

I'm probably not the easiest person
to befriend.

I'm being honest about that.

But I think real friends are
very few and far between.

And I'm very lucky,
I have a handful.

I knew that I was probably the most
important for him,

which has made it easier also
for me.

The friendship with John was the
most important thing in my life.

Dear Heinz. I've never been so
miserable anywhere in my life.

There is not one thing I can say
I like about the place.

Today, Mr G said, "You must not do
that again. It is too..."

"Too what?" I said.

Then he said the music was not
strong enough

and I could do much better.

I am fed up of
everything I do is "too soft" -

he said,
"You will skate like a man!"

I said, "I don't want to skate
like any man I have ever seen!"

he was world champion about
ten years ago.

He was noted for his high jumps and
his extremely athletic style.

What we are going to do is

you're going to see a piece of
Donald Jackson's

World Championship performance, and
then I'm going to skate to the same

piece of music, doing it
the way I would like to do it now,

using the whole body
and trying to express the music.

MUSIC: Habanera
by George Bizet

I wanted to skate better than anyone
I had ever seen skate before,

in a different way.

And I wanted to be able to convince
people in general

that skating had more to offer
than was generally seen.

I knew that the only way
I'd ever get to be able to do it

was by winning the Olympics.

John Curry, a whirlwind of talent,

is the stuff of which excellence
is made.

He is Britain's best skater.

It's only by leaving Britain that
John Curry has been able to make his

talent shine.

Dear Heinz.

How clever of you to guess
I'd be here!

The thermometer shows the
temperature has gone up a couple -

it's now 42 here at the
KOA Weather Centre.

The last few months have been
among the best of my life.

I've lived in great style
in beautiful places,

skating to my heart's content.

I don't really fully understand what
brought me to the green pasture.

By rights I should be in very
different circumstances.

The man who made it all lovely is
a friendly,

American millionaire
who saw in John Curry

a talent floundering in frustration.

It was a story out of Cinderella
on Ice.

After the World Championships in
Bratislava,

a man walked up to me and said,

"I have enjoyed your skating for the
last three years.

"You given a great deal of pleasure
and I'd like to help you."

I had the financial resources

that are more than I myself think
I'll need

for the rest of my life, and I don't
like to see people with real talent

have to stop
just for the want of money.

Suddenly, I could put all my energy
into the skating.

I never, ever had to think about
money again.

He gave Curry the money to buy what
he needed most -

freedom, time, ice...

..and the best coach in the world.

Down, up. OK.

The second one...

My husband was very hesitant
taking him

because he had heard many stories,

you know, that he was difficult
and so on.

Don't get upset for nothing,
like sometimes you get it.

We honestly never had any problems.

As a matter of fact,
we were good friends.

There. That's just lazy.

He knew what he wanted,

but he had very bad figures and my
husband was very famous

Top-class skating is divided into
two parts.

Figure skating, crisp circles,

sliced into the ice
in perfect symmetry.

The figures is demanding.
It was very boring for many people.

For him, it wasn't boring.

It's like, you learn the piano,
what do you have to learn first?

The scales, or whatever.

The second part is the interpretive
freestyle,

a strenuous marriage of technique
and exuberant artistry.

John was known as a skater
that was very talented,

but he many times blew it
at the last minute.

He was always quite inconsistent.

John always was nervous
about the jumps.

In Munich, '74, he fell apart.

He skates around
in a catatonic state.

We've all got problems.

If you don't have any problems,
you aren't here.

I took a course at the
Erhart Seminar Training, EST.

If you were not a success,
in other words

if you weren't filling your need
for love and belongingness

you wouldn't be here tonight.

You'd more likely be
institutionalised.

I took it because there was
absolutely no point

in working hard for a year
and going to the Olympics

and being nervous about not
performing my best.

They had to scream on top of their
lungs

and tell all of their insecurities

in front of many, many people.

They had a certain thought process
that they had to go through.

Life has changed totally.

That really helped him be able
to focus

and to not get nervous any more.

Before every performance, he had to
go into a quiet little room

and I would stay there behind

watching that nobody would come in,
and he would do his

thinking through everything
and then come out,

completely, like, in the zone.

I had so geared myself to winning,

I saw myself doing it all the time,
in my mind's eye,

I saw myself doing it.

Dear Nancy. Here we are in 1975.

'75 sounds like
the end of the century to me.

I feel very happy with the progress
I've made during 1974.

It's been a terrifically exciting
year for me

and the happiest of my life.

We're living in an age of such
widespread uncertainty and darkness

that I feel doubly lucky.

I owe so much to you and
a few others.

Perhaps one day I'll create
something so beautiful,

the debt will be settled.

Now, then, you may remember that on
Thursday

I said I'd been meeting
another John.

Today he's the new European men's
silver medallist skating

champion, John Curry.
Many congratulations.

You've got your silver medal with
you, if we can have a quick look.

Yes, I think it means,
"He who deserves it gets it."

Well, you certainly deserved it.

And you seem very pleased with the
marks that you got.

In fact, we can watch this again
now, to see how you reacted.

John, what did you think of your
chances over there,

especially with the Russian skaters?

Well, I knew that I'd have to do
very well in the school figures

to have a chance, but I thought I'd
be around...

Well, in the first three.

When there's unrest, the Reds have
only one answer - a show of might.

When you get international,
it isn't Bill versus Joe.

It's Britain versus East Germany
or the Russian skaters.

Yes, it was very political.

The Russians always wanted to be
on top.

If Curry's name was Gorinski
or Grovkovski, or Koralev,

he'd probably be world champion
of the last two years.

You don't think the Russians can
skate, for instance, do you,

the males? I don't, no.
What's wrong with them?

They are so crude,
they're so unmusical,

and they don't have... No quality.

It makes me so cross when they say
the Russian skaters are so balletic,

they are so wonderful, they're
so trained.

I know the Russian skaters better
than most,

and I know how bad they are

and I know that they won't take
a ballet class.

I know all that side of it

and it makes me really cross
when I hear it.

The most important day in a
competition for me was

when they drew the judges. I would
just sit there counting East, West.

I'd go, one for East Germany, one
for Britain,

and go through it that way.

When you had five Eastern Bloc
judges,

you'd kiss your chances goodbye.

You appreciate that what you
are actually saying is that skating

is corrupt? Yes, it is. The whole
system is very, very corrupt.

I had the feeling that he's probably
one of the best,

if not the best skater
that ever came.

The only doubt was how to convince
the other people,

many coaches, judges,

they thought that skating was only
jump and run, jump and run.

Nobody really liked
his way of skating.

I changed my attitude.

I set the programme so that
no-one could miss the difficulty

of what I was doing.

Most people take two to three months
to put together

a free skating programme.

John actually choreographed it
on the aeroplane between

Manhattan and Denver.

He just had a vision.

I think he did 25 perfect programmes
before we went to the Europeans.

Don't be psyched out by any Russian
or by any East German,

just go down and look the best.
You ARE the best.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Now in the finals of the men's
figure skating event,

here is, from Great Britain,
John Curry.

He called me the day before the
Europeans

and said, "There are five Eastern
judges

"to four Western judges."

I think I won't have a chance.

John was up against
a political situation.

John is one point behind the leader
after short programme results.

Don Quixote was really his way of
saying,

"I'm trying to do the impossible
and I still believe."

His lessons of psychology
did work very well.

It was amazing for me at that time,

to see that this person has just
turned himself on like a machine.

Then go ahead and do exactly what
he's supposed to do

without any mistakes.

CHEERING

The Czechoslovakian judge
breaks rank.

And he votes for John.

And now John is the European
champion going into the Olympics,

and that shifted everything.

The Winter Olympics of 1976.

The British team, led by Britain's
gold medal hope, skater John Curry.

You've come here as a favourite
for the gold medal.

You don't feel too overconfident
at all?

No, I know...
Well, no, I don't think so.

If I'd been beaten in Europeans,

I would have come, thinking,
"All right,

"they are going to beat me again."

But now, I think, now I CAN beat
them. I know I can.

There's something different about
the Olympics.

It is your one shot.

It's do or die
in front of the entire world.

Every decision you've ever made,

every hardship you've ever gone
through,

the pressure of your entire life
riding on six minutes.

John Curry, champion of Great
Britain, champion of Europe.

John knew if he did not win
the Olympic gold medal

that he would not be able to form
his own dance company,

that nobody would accept him.

He was very determined.

"I'm going to skate
and I'm going to win."

Most skaters come along and
they take ballet lessons.

They don't translate it to ice.

He's done it. A triple toe loop,
a double toe salchow

and a triple salchow,

in that opening 45 seconds of the
programme.

He was different.

His positions and body lines
were superb.

What a beautiful spin. Absolutely
on the spot.

This is great artistic skating.

I remember standing at the Olympics

and just watching this moment of
perfection.

Double axle, two and a half turns.

When he hit the spread eagle
at the end,

he must have known it was the
performance of his life

and that was it.

John Curry did not put a foot wrong.

John Curry has won the Olympic
gold medal for figure skating.

The judges had come to me and said,

"Finally, we've found a balance
between artistry and athleticism."

And I hope that it will influence
skating.

Mrs Curry, you must be very, very
proud indeed.

I am. I'm so pleased for John.

Well, you must be very proud
tonight.

I am. I am. Listen.

For once, I'd done it right.

Can you imagine what it would be
like to wake up,

having won a gold medal,
your dream since you were a child,

and then to go to a press conference

where you've already been warned
that the major thing of interest

amongst all the press
as to whether he, John,

was going to tell them
whether or not he was gay?

Nobody was openly gay,
whether they were gay or not.

It certainly wasn't the accepted
thing to have a gold medallist in an

Olympic sport who was a gay man.

I had thought if I said
to a journalist,

"This is off the record,"

that it meant that they wouldn't say
anything about it.

A lot of people said that I, quote,
"came out" at the Olympics.

But I didn't. I never intentionally
set out to make a statement.

But then, having done it,

I'm not going to turn round and
say that it's not true

or I'm ashamed of it
or anything else.

But suddenly, I became aware of a
great wave of support, real support,

that came from England,
which was awfully nice.

I'd never experienced
anything like that.

I actually thought people wanted me
to do well.

Every letter I've had has been about
my skating.

They're not interesting in knowing
what I do in my private life.

And the winner, the BBC Sports
Personality Of The Year,

the viewers' choice, John Curry.

Ladies and gentlemen, John Curry.

Sante. Cheers.

Dear Nancy. My week in England has
been extremely exciting.

Yesterday, I was guest of honour at
the Award For Valour in sport.

I was introduced as,
"A man of great social courage."

I've never thought of myself in that
light.

Mother has been wonderful about
everything.

We talked about my being gay and
she was so kind and understanding.

That has been one of the greatest
things

to have come out of the Olympics.

In the middle of London's West End
Theatreland,

it's the only Playhouse whose boards
are made of water.

Transforming the Cambridge into the
John Curry Theatre of skating.

Describe the show. Is it like ice
shows we've always seen,

with glitter and ultraviolet,
underwater scenes?

Well, I hope not!

I think having trained for 15 years
and then you have to go and dress up

as Donald Duck or Bugs Bunny,
I can't see the point of that.

What I've always wanted to do was

to take the finest skaters
I could find,

bring them to very fine
choreographers, good musicians,

and creative designers
and put the whole thing together.

When we were young, we skated
together, we practised together.

And we would talk about having this
wonderful ballet company on ice.

So, when John did turn professional,

he came into my dressing room and
he said,

"You're the first person I've asked.

"Would you like to become a member
of my skating company?"

My eyes lit up. I thought, "This is
what I've always wanted."

It's lovely for me to be on the ice
with other people.

I love that because, you know, often
I used to be skating and thinking,

"It would be so nice to have someone
to relate to and to sort of skate to

"and with." And now,

I skate with one other person and
two other people

and sometimes with six other people.

And that's lovely. That's like a
whole new feeling for me.

It's not ballet. On the ice, we can
move in a way that no-one else can.

Would you ever now consider taking
those skates off and making

a career as a dancer?

I don't think I would, seriously,

because I haven't really finished
learning to skate yet,

so I'm certainly not going to start
thinking about anything else.

Once the doors opened, he said,

"I've just got to do something right
away

"that will get everyone to

"shift...their perspective of
skating."

And what a perfect vehicle
was Afternoon Of A Fawn.

Because of its ballet history.

I mean, if he ever wanted to bring
ballet to the ice, this was it.

It's the piece which is his defining
moment.

The story is there is a fawn who's
alone in a forest...

..and encounters a nymph...

..and captures the nymph,
fleetingly.

And then the nymph escapes again,

as if it's almost, like, too much.

It is very intimate and I would say
it's a very sensual piece.

There was the Nijinsky ballet.

And then there was the
Jerome Robbins ballet.

But the movements and the way they
were all presented

were very different.

In skating, you can hold a pose,
not move a muscle,

and you're still moving.

There's one section where they
crisscross

and they're both holding a pose.

And the audience holds their breath.

And then he pushes backwards.

And what you feel is the power and
the purity of just the glide alone.

That's what separates his Afternoon
Of A Fawn from the dance versions.

The Afternoon Of A Fawn is about
intimacy, lust, and love.

Here are these two dancers
performing something very intimate.

But not really connecting.

Feeling like this is too close.

"This is too close.
It's too much.

"I can't do it."

And so then they flee
from each other.

When they're done, you wonder,
was it real

or was it a dream?

And maybe that was part
of the pattern of his life.

What he yearned for so much was
maybe more than what

he may have been capable of stepping
into, with his full, full being.

That was when Ron came on the scene.

Ron was his downfall.

Ron was big
and he wasn't a good skater.

Some of us wondered
how on earth he was in the show.

They had a relationship,
everybody in the company knew.

And John seemed happier, less moody.

I know that he liked someone
a bit rough.

He enjoyed that, more than anything.

Ron was all into this S&M stuff -
chains and handcuffs.

I think that Ron took him to places

he probably wouldn't have gone to
before.

I never liked Ron.

Ron was at least as tough on John
than John was on all of his friends.

I think John had this hidden shame,

so this punishing thing got
more and more...

There was one night he came in,

John was in front of a mirror

and his face was really badly
bruised and cut.

And he said
that he had been attacked.

He had been mugged.

The show went on for about ten days
without him.

John Curry now lives in New York and
is rehearsing with noted

choreographers here in Westchester
for the first American tour of his

newly formed company.

You go... One, two, three...

Is it possible to go... One...

One...two, three.

So...
HE WHISTLES THE MELODY

We just need the beginning.

OK. One more time.

It's just the beginning, you stay
and then... Just a little bit.

And then now.

That's right, OK?

OK. Now, we were here.

Yeah. Bam ka-bam.

Yeah? Bam. Yeah.

Then you can go... Yeah.

One, two.

Not too big a jump. One, two, three.

One, one, two, three, four.

One, so maybe that way.

Two, two, three, four.

So nice when somebody tells me
to do less,

because everybody's usually
telling me to do more!

From the beginning.

The show at the Minskoff...

The lights of Broadway.

There was a symphony,
there was a stage.

There was great lighting,
there was great scenic design.

Tango-Tango with JoJo Starbuck.
That was a standout.

It shows John in a whole other
stylistic kind of milieu.

He's almost like the macho dancer
there.

And then JoJo,
who's a very strong female,

pulling him in and manipulating him
almost, if you look at the movement.

And yet he has the last word.

When someone has made inroads -
like John did - into an art form,

when someone is an innovator and has
changed the way that we looked at

skating, in this instance...

New Yorkers built a pedestal for him

and made a great noise about his
excellence.

We had a lot of wonderfully famous
people who came to see the show.

Ballet dancers, actors -
Woody Allen, Diana Ross.

He just loved the energy of
the city.

He loved everything about it,
he loved taking his dance classes,

he loved the social scene.

And, of course,
connecting with a lot of men.

Dearest Heinz.

You really would love New York.

It's SUCH an exciting city.

There are hundreds of beautiful men
walking about

and most of them seem to be gay.

There's a gay place in the park that
is very busy in the daytime

and I guess even busier by night.

The gay community was really sort of
coming into its own,

able to experience the gamut of
their sexual desires,

without consequence.

There was some arguments between
John and Ron

and there was a big change in John.

When things go wrong they, you know,
tend to create their own problems.

There was one tragic night
at the Minskoff.

John came out to do his solo
and he was off balance.

He went into his sit spin and he
spun round on his bottom

and sat there, like this, and

obviously there was something
very wrong.

And John was breaking down,
sobbing like a baby.

Somebody said it was muscle
relaxants,

somebody said something else.
Nobody really knew.

After that, the show was stopped.

MUSIC: Echo Beach
by Martha And The Muffins

Fire Island is an island
off the coast of New York.

Gay nirvana.

There was a community there
called The Pines.

John, I think, felt very much
at home,

and that he was amongst his people.

He was able to be fully expressive,
to be VERY open about his sexuality.

It was a chance to recover from the
pressure that had mounted

throughout his life.

He would rent a house there and
invite various friends to come

and visit.

You have to remember he had spent
much of his time

going into very cold
ice rinks early in the morning.

The opposite of that was
Fire Island, in every way.

It was sunny, it was the beach,
there was really no responsibility.

There was a party crowd.

They were determined
to have a good time!

And we did.

# The sky's alive with light

# Building in the distance
Surrealistic sight

# On Echo Beach
Waves make the only sound

# On Echo Beach
There's not a soul around... #

Dearest Cath. Well, as you can
imagine,

life has been rather hectic for me
these past weeks.

Still, I guess
I can live through it.

The summer is over and I'm getting
used to the idea of living alone.

Still miss Ron.

I do hope we shall skate more.

I was in Fire Island
and he was sitting

on one of those woodland walkway
things.

I said, "Hello,
what are you doing?"

And he said, "I was just wondering
what it would feel like to drown."

We had a very long conversation
about how depressed he was.

He was very lonely.

To cut a long story short,
we then went to see Stephen Lieber,

who was a rock promoter.

Steve ended up giving John the money
to fly to Vale with a group of

skaters to put together a repertory.

Well, John, where are you based now,
then?

Well, I spend most of my time in
America.

I'm based more or less in Colorado,

where I rehearse with my skating
company.

Every day we have a warm-up class,

which is very much the same
as a ballet class.

In other words you start with very
simple exercises and work up to the

virtuoso stuff.

I got a phone call saying John would
like to invite you to join his

company. In skating,
if you're invited by John Curry

to do anything, it would be like,
in television, turning Oprah down.

You know, you would never do that.

Do you get lots of infighting about

"I should be getting paid more than
Joe Bloggs,

"who is not as good a skater
as I am?"

No, what I did was, the reason
a lot of my shows don't succeed

is because someone earns a lot of
money

and most of the people earn
virtually none.

So we all have the same wages.

Everyone in the show is paid
the same amount of money.

Which allows us to continue our work
and we think that's the most

important thing.

He had a dream.

He had a vision of what a great
company and a great show should be.

Having a live orchestra, flying in
very well-known choreographers...

..and we wanted to give him that.

No matter what.

1982, we did four different events
throughout Canada.

I was always on the road.
I was always the point guy,

and it was during that period
that I got to know who he was

and understand him
a little better.

I felt that every female skater
was either secretly

or openly in love with him.

He was physically
the perfect male specimen.

He was such an
intimidating character

and he could change his face
quite quickly,

so you never knew which John you
were getting at that moment.

He was a perfectionist and I think
that probably contributed to his

moodiness.

Let's call it arrogance at times,

standoffish at times,
difficult at best.

The usual thing with the arm,
one, two.

If he was in a good mood with a
skater, he would be instructional.

Use the same arm on the first two

and then reverse arm
on the second two.

But he could be very mean
to the female skaters.

That's right. That's lovely.

Specifically anybody
that may have had a weight issue.

He had very cutting
acerbic kind of commentary.

OK. Plie.
You didn't do much of a plie.

That's right.

One, two, three, four,

That's too much space.

Skaters were in fear of him.

We'll do it two at a time. No-one
wanted to come under his microscope,

yet everyone wanted to come under
his microscope,

and it was almost as if everyone
understood

that demons lived inside of him.

It was like
the great ballet masters.

He demanded a lot, he got a lot...

..and he drilled them very
rigorously on and off the ice.

He took average skaters and
made them incredible.

SHE SPEAKS JAPANESE

How do you feel,
skating with a live orchestra?

Well, it's a lot of fun and
sometimes it is rather a challenge

because every day the orchestra,
being human, is slightly different,

so one has to try and respond
to the differences in the music.

We were brought to Japan.

It was gorgeous. They put ice
all over the Yoyogi Stadium,

they had the new Japan
Philharmonic playing...

..but John was miserable,
absolutely miserable.

He walked in, he saw the arena,
he saw billboards,

and it was like,

"I haven't worked all this hard
to skate in front of signage."

And he was really upset and
he was not going to perform.

The Japanese producers had put an
applause in there

and that was appalling to John.

He didn't want to know,
didn't want to skate,

he didn't want anything
to do with any of this.

They then actually had to get the
key of his room from the manager.

Quite honestly I was concerned that
he had taken his life at that time.

He was deeply depressed.

He said to me,
"Some consider me to be a genius.

"I want you to know that

"that other side of the spectrum
lives inside of me.

"Whatever greatness
you think I have,

"there are demons of equal value
that are inside of my soul."

That was a side of John that was
almost impossible to...

You couldn't wave a wand to put that
right.

There was this deep melancholy,
this despair inside of him.

And it had nothing to do
with the company he created.

It was to do with something else,

something in his life he wanted
that he couldn't have.

The battle was always the same.

He didn't have a lover.

He wanted a lover all the time.

"I'm lonely, I need someone here..."

A cry for help.

Bobby Campbell of San Francisco and
Billy Walker of New York both suffer

from a mysterious newly
discovered disease

which affects mostly homosexual men.

Many victims get a rare form
of cancer called Kaposi sarcoma.

Others get an infection known as
pneumocystis pneumonia.

We were in the dark. We didn't
have very much information.

Investigators have examined the
habits of homosexuals for clues.

I was in the fast lane at one time,

in terms of the way I live my life,
and now I'm not.

It went from very light
and carefree kind of living,

to fear and caution.

I have four friends that have died.

I have two friends that are dying.

I listen to them,
brilliant people...

..brilliant people.

John Curry is the man, it's said,
who first turned athletics into art.

It was he who first whetted
the public's appetite for

the ice wizardry that Torvill and
Dean have lately been satisfying.

For the last 14 months, he's poured
his energies into training his

ice dance company for next week's
Symphony On Ice in the Albert Hall,

of all places.

You always fascinate me
with your shows.

I mean, it's called Symphony On Ice.

It's unusual in that
it's at the Royal Albert Hall.

Have they ever had ice there before?

No, they've had just about
everything else, no ice skating.

When I turned professional,
it was the place I wanted to go to.

It's taken me seven years
to get there.

This might be quite a naive
question, but how do you build

the rink? I mean, do you put in a
little swimming pool and freeze it?

I believe we had a week to put ice
into the Albert Hall,

which under normal conditions
would have been enough.

We had some stuff that
came in a little late,

so we were already behind schedule.

We set up the rink and turned it on

and we had a generator,
and that broke down.

When it became clear that we were
jeopardising our opening night,

we began to bring in ice trucks so

we could just somehow get
that floor frozen.

When it came time
to skate on the ice...

..it really wasn't thick enough
to be skated on.

There were patches of sand which
were extremely treacherous.

If you hit sand with a blade,
then basically you're history.

Everyone knew there was a problem

and so it was as... Difficulties
were sort of skated through,

the audience got more involved.

It had part of its own momentum.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
has accompanied the skaters

up until now, but this is Burn -

a modern synthesised composition
by Jean-Michel Jarre.

One piece that showed John's
potential was Burn.

It was extraordinary.

He was like a magnet, he was like
the nucleus of this atomic group.

And they keep being drawn into
this magnet, and escaping again.

And escaping.

It was really, really demanding.

It involved all of the skaters
rotating in both directions

the entire time.

And then there was this one section

where John was kind of
weaving through us.

That part terrified him
and it terrified us,

because if one of us was
too fast or too slow,

it screwed up his timing.

He would slam right into us.

The audience is raptured.

Completely engrossed.

We were looking at each other,
sort of saying, "This is our time.

"This is our time."

It justified everything
we had gone through.

So there was no reason to be
concerned about being in debt.

Because by then, the skaters were
looking at the opportunity

of performing in
the Metropolitan Opera House.

Joining us this morning to talk
about skating on the stage

of the Met, two 1976
Olympic champions -

John Curry and Dorothy Hamill.
Good seeing you both,

thanks for being with us. Thank you.

The Met is pretty much everybody's
dream, whether you are

an opera singer, or a dancer,
it is like, "Oh, my God."

To perform at the Met is the
highlight of one's career.

In New York, you cannot have more
illustrious exposure than that.

The show went on sale
and it sold out immediately.

For the last 72 hours, engineers
have been busy laying an ice rink

on the Met's
8,000-square-foot stage.

Straighten out something
first of all -

you were supposed to
open last night.

Yes. We had a problem with the ice,
which has now been solved.

You've been on the ice this morning?

I went this morning.
I've skated, it's fine,

we're going to open tonight
at eight o'clock.

I didn't sleep the whole night
before the opening.

Because this was it,

this was going to make or break
John Curry's company and his career

and we all were very aware of that.

Thousands of people in the Opera
House were used to operas

and ballets. They weren't quite sure
what it was they were going to see.

The company's musical director,
Charles Barker,

conducts the overture
to Rossini's William Tell.

It was unbelievable. We'd never
seen anything like this.

And it was sensational.

The cast were sensational.

I think it was Anna Kisselgoff who
wrote, "The Metropolitan Opera House

"nor ice skating will
ever be the same again."

That told him he had achieved
what he set out to achieve.

They were so awestruck
by what they saw.

They stood and cheered for
about 20 minutes

at the end of the performance.

And I remember going backstage
and John was crying.

He was shaking from head to foot
and he said, "We did it."

I said, "Yes, you did,"
and he said, "Can I stop now?

"Can the company go ahead
without me?"

And I said,

"No, you're the star of this company
and everyone wants to see you."

He had obviously got it in his head
that once he had skated in the Met,

he had done his job.

But, of course, that isn't true,
because the company was in debt.

Keeping a group of skaters together
for the best part of a year,

we kept a permanent conductor so
that the tempo was always perfect.

Everything was very expensive,

so I explained to him that
he had to keep doing this

for two or three years, until there
were other stars who emerged

and then he could step back.

But the truth was,
he didn't want to perform.

He was in pain. His legs were
hurting, as many skaters' do.

He wanted the company, but he did
not want to be its star performer.

Everything after that was less.

Not because the skaters
skated any less wonderfully...

..but because the spirit had gone.

Because, without
John's spirit there,

it wasn't the same.

The Scandinavian tour was...not fun.

We started in Copenhagen
and we walked into that arena,

signage all over the arena,

and John just said,
"I'm not going to skate."

He came up with a number of
different reasons

why he couldn't do it.

But of course all the tickets
had been sold.

The next thing we knew was that

he had not warmed up
before he performed

and he had injured himself.

I went in the ambulance with him
and I said, "So is it bad?"

There was just a look in his face

that made me feel
he was taking a dive.

The middle part of the tour
had to be cancelled.

This was, financially, a disaster.

He came back to New York
for treatment

and then he went to perform
at the last engagement

which was at the Bergen Opera House.

Which he did beautifully.

Eliot Feld,
when he created Moon Skate,

took John in a direction
to have him reflect on the ice

the melancholy that was in him.

It is a very reflective piece.

The movement that's all about
regression and progression.

Without any visible effort.

It is almost transcendent.

It was almost like
you were a voyeur,

looking in at the stage
in a very intimate moment

that he was experiencing.

Every single time he performed it,
he cried.

At this particular juncture,
his tears would start flowing.

I really, genuinely sensed
the journey he had taken

in the dance to that point
had led that to happen.

That piece is full of searching.

Searching for something
that he doesn't get.

He was always searching for
the constancy of love,

for a love that would endure.

It was so moving, so beautiful.

And at the end of the piece,
you would see the...

despair, the resignation,

the acceptance of the fact that
he can't.

He can't find it.

He is again alone, you know,
on the ice,

all the people that he has loved
or had relationships with

have fallen by the wayside.
One way or another.

You know, maybe it's an
acknowledgement of how far he came

and how close he got,
and yet, not quite there.

Both in terms of his personal life

and in terms of
his professional ambitions.

That was the last time that
that company performed.

That was the end.

PROTESTERS CHANT

When it comes to preventing Aids,

don't medicine and morality
teach the same message?

CHANTING: Americans are dying!

We want to identify
every person who is a carrier.

We want to identify
every possible way

to stop them from
spreading the disease.

Aids at that time was terrifying.

Since they didn't know
what was causing it,

there becomes a fear of contagion.

That sort of fed into this
homophobic narrow-mindedness -

"See, we told you it was wrong,
now you are being punished."

..saying that the only good
homosexual is a dying homosexual...

In the arts, circles of friends,
people you knew

were suddenly ill, and the circles
started to get closer and closer.

They were shrinking towards
your inner circle.

Now, you were in America
for ten years.

You came back in November
of last year.

With a pocket full of money?

No, no, with a pocket empty,
actually.

Why? What happened? Well, I put
a lot of my own money into the shows

and I had some difficulties
along the way,

with the people who were producing.

I lost everything I made, actually.

I went to Liverpool, I saw the show.

We walked to the Atlantic Hotel,
where I stayed.

And then he told me,
"I'm HIV-positive."

I just said, "No, can't be."
And then I hugged him.

We went then straight up to my room.

Sometimes I cried,
sometimes he cried.

It was just a fact.

You sort of knew that he knows
also that it's death fairly soon.

Dear Heinz, it was so nice to see
you over the weekend.

When you left on Sunday, I smoked
the cigarette you left behind

and felt very tired.

I called Mother on the telephone.

Well, we had the best talk
we've ever had.

And I think it will be a great help
in the rest of my life, and hers.

While we spoke,
I cried very deeply.

I told her so many things that had
been causing me great distress.

Mother spoke very calmly
and with great compassion.

I even spoke about my fear of Aids.

So you can tell it was a much more
personal conversation

than we've ever had before.

You hung up your skating boots,
what, 18 months ago?

Yes, 18 months, yeah.
Never skated since? No.

And never will?
I don't think so, no.

In 1990, John had stopped
choreographing and skating.

But we had asked
if he would be interested

in doing a dance
for The Next Ice Age.

He came for three weeks,
and we rehearsed every morning.

And he was so different then

than he was during the stress of
when he was running his own company

and having to deal with the finances

and just everything
that goes with it.

These are the original costumes
that John designed himself.

They are different colours of

what I think he must have thought
the Danube would be lit by the moon.

This is the kind of detail
that John was designing.

It was right from the start
going to be a quartet, four men.

I think he was thinking,
"What will be my final work?"

He wanted the dance to be about
friendship, that's what he told us.

A sense of joy,

and a sense of beauty,

and happiness.

He thought, that's what
I want people to remember me as.

And so, here, 30 years later,

we'll be restaging it
with a brand-new cast.

You know, for me to see

the three companies
that he evolved -

Ice Theatre of New York,
Ice Dance International

and then The Next Ice Age,
is so powerful

because these skaters
are practising and performing

his legacy.

The legacy is there.

But whether there will ever be
another company

of the sort that John had...
probably not.

Most of the people
that were in theatre skating

and in fact most of the company
members throughout John's company,

almost all of the men are dead.

From Aids.

Even now in sports,
we have a lot of homophobia,

whether it is figure skating
or football.

At that time in the late '70s, it
was a completely different world.

Look at him as an artist,
and somebody who broke boundaries.

He had the guts to be his true self
on the ice.

And I think that's
the greatest achievement

that he was able to
leave in this world

was that he made this, who only
started skating 20 years later,

be comfortable to really
be themself on the ice.

We met him at Coventry
railway station, I think,

Andrew and I. And he came home
and he said he was ill.

And that was it.

A lot of the time,
he was quite well.

But most of the time, when he could,
he was in the garden.

Either gardening or needle-working.

SHE LAUGHS

Dear Cathy.
How lovely to hear from you.

I've not been to Prague
for, what, 20 years?

It looked as if a strong wind
would demolish it then,

so whatever must it look like now?

Well, I have something to tell you

which you've probably heard already.

I have Aids.

I'm not traumatised...I think.

And inside, I am peaceful.

I love being at home again,

and not having to teach and skate is
a welcome relief for this old body.

This is not a very uplifting letter,
but dear Cathy,

do not worry or be sad.

I've had an extraordinary life,
by any standards.

I've met with great success
and happiness,

and at times, the reverse.

So keep your pecker up.

Lots of love,

John.

In a way, what have you done?

You haven't invented penicillin,
you haven't cured cancer,

you haven't built
an old people's home.

You've zoomed around the ice.

Is what you do really
of any importance at all?

Is it important? It's only important

because things like skating or...

or any kind of performance
that brings people pleasure,

really some of the things that, if
you like, make life worth living.

I know that sounds terribly corny,
but it does.

If everything in life
was entirely practical,

we would all have our amount of
bread and water and so on,

but some things have to move you
or make you feel very happy

or even very sad or something.

They have to make you
feel something.

And I'm very glad
that I've been able to

make some people feel something
with my skating.

I think that's great.

And I think that's important.