Ice dancing is a form of pairs figure skating which draws from the world of ballroom dancing. It became a Winter Olympic Games medal sport in 1976. It differs from "regular" pair skating by severely limiting throws and lifts (in fact, no throws are allowed at all). No jumps are allowed, and dance spins must be performed as a team. Typically, partners are not supposed to separate, originally partners were supposed to be in a dance hold the entire program. This restriction has been lifted somewhat in modern ice dancing.

There are three components to an ice dancing competition: the compulsory dances, the original dance ("OD") and the free dance.

The British team of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously won the Olympic gold medal in Sarajevo in 1984 with a dramatic free skate to Ravel's Bolero which earned unanimous 6.0s in artistic merit.