Robin Cousins
Encyclopedia
Robert "Robin" Cousins (born 17 August 1957 in Bristol
) is a British
retired competitive figure skater
. He is the 1980 Olympic Champion
, the 1980 European champion
, a three-time (1978, 1979 & 1980) World medalist
and four-time (1977, 1978, 1979 & 1980) British national champion. He later starred in ice shows and also produced his own. In addition to skating, he has also appeared in theatre productions, including in the West End
. He has also commentated on figure skating events for the BBC and from 2006 to 2011 he has been a judge on ITV's Dancing on Ice
for Millwall
) of Bristol, England, Robin Cousins took to figure skating very early after skating for the first time at Westover Road Ice Rink in Bournemouth
. He won his first national title in 1969 at the age of twelve on the novice level. By age fourteen, he was Britain’s junior champion, and he made his international debut that same year.
As a young skater, Cousins also did ice dancing
at the same time as singles, his first coach being a dancer. He was later coached by Carlo Fassi
. Cousins can spin in both directions.
Cousins represented the United Kingdom
as an amateur skater for eight years, winning the National Senior Championships for four consecutive years. He had a left knee injury at the 1977 World Championships
. By 1980, he had undergone major surgery on both his left and right knees.
Cousins won the free skating portion of the World Championships three times, 1978 through 1980.
He won silver medals at the World Championships in 1979
and 1980
. He reached the pinnacle of his amateur ice skating career by winning the European Championships
gold medal, and also winning the Winter Olympic Games
gold medal in Lake Placid, New York
, in 1980.
Cousins followed this with a highly successful career as a professional ice skater. He starred in such skating shows as Holiday on Ice
and Ice Capades
, and he was a regular in the World Professional Championships
.
In 1983, Cousins formed his own ice-skating performance company, and it toured the world with the programs Electric Ice and Ice Majesty.
's Cinderella
, Munkustrap
in Cats
, and Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show
in the West End
.
Cousins also starred in, produced, directed, and/or choreographed many international TV ice spectaculars such as The Nutcracker: A Fantasy on Ice, Sleeping Beauty on Ice, The Wizard of Oz on Ice, Toy Story on Ice, Andrew Lloyd Webber
's Starlight Express on Ice, Holiday on Ice, and the movie The Cutting Edge
.
He has also made various pantomime
performances, playing Jack Frost
in Santa Clause and the Return of Jack Frost at the Mayflower Theatre
, Southampton
. Prior to this he played the Prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
at the Grand Opera House
, Belfast
.
, for the European
and World Figure Skating Championships
and the Winter Olympics.
He appeared as the head judge on the show Dancing on Ice
in each series from 2006 to 2011.
1990-1997
Those marked with a * were team competitions
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
) is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
retired competitive figure skater
Figure skating
Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
. He is the 1980 Olympic Champion
1980 Winter Olympics
The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, was a multi-sport event which was celebrated from 13 February through 24 February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932...
, the 1980 European champion
1980 European Figure Skating Championships
The 1980 European Figure Skating Championships were the European Figure Skating Championships of the 1979-1980 season. Elite senior-level figure skaters from European ISU Member Nations competed for the title of European Champion...
, a three-time (1978, 1979 & 1980) World medalist
World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
and four-time (1977, 1978, 1979 & 1980) British national champion. He later starred in ice shows and also produced his own. In addition to skating, he has also appeared in theatre productions, including in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
. He has also commentated on figure skating events for the BBC and from 2006 to 2011 he has been a judge on ITV's Dancing on Ice
Dancing on Ice
Dancing on Ice is a British television show co-hosted by Christine Bleakley and Philip Schofield, in which celebrities and their professional partners figure skate in front of a panel of judges. The format, devised by LWT and Granada Television, has been a prime-time hit in eight different...
Skating career
From a sporting family (his father was a goalkeeperGoalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, a goalkeeper is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by intercepting shots at goal...
for Millwall
Millwall F.C.
Millwall Football Club is an English professional football club based in South Bermondsey, south east London, that plays in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football. Founded as Millwall Rovers in 1885, the club has retained its name despite having last played in the...
) of Bristol, England, Robin Cousins took to figure skating very early after skating for the first time at Westover Road Ice Rink in Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
. He won his first national title in 1969 at the age of twelve on the novice level. By age fourteen, he was Britain’s junior champion, and he made his international debut that same year.
As a young skater, Cousins also did ice dancing
Ice dancing
Ice dancing is a form of figure skating which draws from the world of ballroom dancing. It was first competed at the World Figure Skating Championships in 1952, but did not become a Winter Olympic Games medal sport until 1976....
at the same time as singles, his first coach being a dancer. He was later coached by Carlo Fassi
Carlo Fassi
Carlo Fassi was a well-known Italian figure skater and international coach whose students included several World and Olympic champions.-Career:Fassi was born in Milan....
. Cousins can spin in both directions.
Cousins represented the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
as an amateur skater for eight years, winning the National Senior Championships for four consecutive years. He had a left knee injury at the 1977 World Championships
1977 World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
. By 1980, he had undergone major surgery on both his left and right knees.
Cousins won the free skating portion of the World Championships three times, 1978 through 1980.
He won silver medals at the World Championships in 1979
1979 World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion....
and 1980
1980 World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion....
. He reached the pinnacle of his amateur ice skating career by winning the European Championships
1980 European Figure Skating Championships
The 1980 European Figure Skating Championships were the European Figure Skating Championships of the 1979-1980 season. Elite senior-level figure skaters from European ISU Member Nations competed for the title of European Champion...
gold medal, and also winning the Winter Olympic Games
Winter Olympic Games
The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating...
gold medal in Lake Placid, New York
1980 Winter Olympics
The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, was a multi-sport event which was celebrated from 13 February through 24 February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932...
, in 1980.
Cousins followed this with a highly successful career as a professional ice skater. He starred in such skating shows as Holiday on Ice
Holiday on Ice
Holiday on Ice is an ice show currently produced by Joop van den Ende's Stage Entertainment Group with its headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands...
and Ice Capades
Ice Capades
The Ice Capades was a traveling entertainment show featuring theatrical performances involving ice skating. Shows often featured former Olympicand National Champion figure skaters who had retired from amateur competition....
, and he was a regular in the World Professional Championships
World Professional Figure Skating Championships
The World Professional Figure Skating Championships, often referred to as Landover, was an elite made-for-TV figure skating competition. It was created by Dick Button, a 2-time Olympic gold medalist, through his production company Candid Productions. It usually took place in December...
.
In 1983, Cousins formed his own ice-skating performance company, and it toured the world with the programs Electric Ice and Ice Majesty.
Theatre
Cousins has made the successful transfer from sport to stage, playing the Prince in Rodgers and HammersteinRodgers and Hammerstein
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II were a well-known American songwriting duo, usually referred to as Rodgers and Hammerstein. They created a string of popular Broadway musicals in the 1940s and 1950s during what is considered the golden age of the medium...
's Cinderella
Cinderella (TV)
Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella is a musical written for television, with music by Richard Rodgers and a book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based upon the fairy tale Cinderella, particularly the French version Cendrillon, ou la Petite Pantoufle de Vair, by Charles Perrault...
, Munkustrap
Munkustrap
Munkustrap is a Jellicle cat, named in T. S. Eliot's poem "The Naming of Cats". He is a principal character in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats.-The musical:...
in Cats
Cats (musical)
Cats is a musical composed by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot...
, and Frank N Furter in The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show
The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...
in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
.
Cousins also starred in, produced, directed, and/or choreographed many international TV ice spectaculars such as The Nutcracker: A Fantasy on Ice, Sleeping Beauty on Ice, The Wizard of Oz on Ice, Toy Story on Ice, Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...
's Starlight Express on Ice, Holiday on Ice, and the movie The Cutting Edge
The Cutting Edge
The Cutting Edge is a 1992 romantic comedy film directed by Paul Michael Glaser and written by Tony Gilroy. The plot is about a very rich, spoiled figure skater who is paired with a has-been ice hockey player for Olympic figure skating...
.
He has also made various pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
performances, playing Jack Frost
Jack Frost
Jack Frost is a sprite-like character with roots in Viking lore. There, he is known as Jokul Frosti . In Britain and United States, Jack is a variant of Old Man Winter and is held responsible for frosty weather, for nipping the nose and toes in such weather, coloring the foliage in autumn, and...
in Santa Clause and the Return of Jack Frost at the Mayflower Theatre
Mayflower Theatre
The Mayflower is a Grade II listed theatre, in the city centre of Southampton, United Kingdom, with a capacity of 2,300. It features West End theatre shows when they tour the UK. The theatre opened on the 22 December 1928, as The Empire Theatre, part of the Moss Empire theatre group...
, Southampton
Southampton
Southampton is the largest city in the county of Hampshire on the south coast of England, and is situated south-west of London and north-west of Portsmouth. Southampton is a major port and the closest city to the New Forest...
. Prior to this he played the Prince in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White
"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
at the Grand Opera House
Grand Opera House (Belfast)
The Grand Opera House is a theatre in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed by the most prolific theatre architect of the period, Frank Matcham. It opened on 23 December 1895....
, Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
.
Media work
Over several years, Cousins has been a regular guest presenter and commentator for BBC SportBBC Sport
BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...
, for the European
European Figure Skating Championships
The European Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition in which figure skaters compete for the title of European Champion...
and World Figure Skating Championships
World Figure Skating Championships
The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion...
and the Winter Olympics.
He appeared as the head judge on the show Dancing on Ice
Dancing on Ice (UK)
Dancing on Ice is a British television show co-hosted by Christine Bleakley and Philip Schofield, in which celebrities and their professional partners figure skate in front of a panel of judges. The format, devised by LWT and Granada Television, has been a prime-time hit in eight different...
in each series from 2006 to 2011.
Amateur competitive results
| Event | 1972-73 | 1973-74 | 1974-75 | 1975-76 | 1976-77 | 1977-78 | 1978-79 | 1979-80 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Olympics Winter Olympic Games The Winter Olympic Games is a sporting event, which occurs every four years. The first celebration of the Winter Olympics was held in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The original sports were alpine and cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping and speed skating... |
10th | 1st | ||||||
| World Championships World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union in which elite figure skaters compete for the title of World Champion... |
10th | 9th | Withdrew | 3rd | 2nd | 2nd | ||
| European Championships European Figure Skating Championships The European Figure Skating Championships is an annual figure skating competition in which figure skaters compete for the title of European Champion... |
15th | 11th | 11th | 6th | 3rd | 3rd | 3rd | 1st |
| British Championships British Figure Skating Championships The British Figure Skating Championships are a figure skating competition held annually to crown the national champions of the United Kingdom... |
3rd | 2nd | 2nd | 2nd | 1st | 1st | 1st | 1st |
| Skate Canada International Skate Canada International The Skate Canada International is an international, senior-level invitation-only figure skating competition organized by Skate Canada. It is the second competition of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating. The location changes yearly. Medals are awarded in four disciplines: Ladies' singles, Men's... |
2nd | 1st | ||||||
| NHK Trophy NHK Trophy The NHK Trophy is an international, senior-level figure skating competition held as part of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. Figure skaters compete in the disciplines of ladies' singles, men's singles, pair skating, and ice dancing.... |
1st |
Professional competitive results
1980-1989| Event/Season | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Professional Figure Skating Competitions World Professional Championships The World Professional Championships can refer to:* World Professional Figure Skating Championships* Tennis, professional tournaments before the open era... |
1st * | 2nd * | 1st | 2nd | 1st | 4th | ||||
| Challenge of Champions | 1st | 2nd | ||||||||
| World Cup of Skating | 1st |
1990-1997
| Event/Season | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| World Professional Figure Skating Competitions World Professional Championships The World Professional Championships can refer to:* World Professional Figure Skating Championships* Tennis, professional tournaments before the open era... |
2nd | 3rd | 2nd | |||||
| Challenge of Champions | 3rd | 4th | 2nd | 3rd | ||||
| World Team Championship | 3rd * | |||||||
| Legends Championship | 2nd | |||||||
| Canadian Pro Championship | 4th |
Those marked with a * were team competitions
External links
- Cousins Entertainment
- Robin Cousins skates to Julian Lloyd Webber's music Television appearance, YouTube