I’m fascinated by the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics and Paralympics. It’s that coming together of the world, the belief in faster, higher, stronger. The flag, the flame, the medals, the whole ritual of the thing quite apart from the events themselves.
I also watch as I’m interested in ceremonies as a piece of theatre. Making theatre on a large scale is not easy but in Paris, we have been treated to something special, astonishing even. I know the parade goes on for a long time and you know it’s only going to be more of the same but I love to see the joy on the faces of the competitors.
The Paralympic ceremony was full of a diverse range of performers. Dance was the chosen form to deliver a message of struggle and acceptance. Of mainstream society versus people outside the norm. We could see that many of the performers had disabilities but by the end, they blended in a giant moving panoply of arms and legs sometimes working alone and sometimes as a unified group. The disabled dancers as a group gradually led the mainstream group towards something better – inclusivity. By the end, you were so used to seeing people whose bodies were different that you saw them as part of the whole.
Isn’t this what the world could be? To see the world at its best without negativity and hate. To catch a glimpse of how it could be: at ease with itself with a place for everyone to be who they are, who they want to be and be at peace. There is an extraordinary Ukrainian-American athlete called Oksana Masters whose complex disabilities came at birth as she was born near the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl. She says,” If we can dream, we can achieve.” Inspiring words from an inspiring person.
This performance let us enter a world that was beautiful to look at. The mainstream world started with powerful straight lines and black costumes. They were choreographed to act as one while those with disabilities used more curves and confronted that world-of-one. Using colour, graphics and interwoven video interviews they gradually led us to a place of acceptance. They made space for the wonderful winner of Britain’s Got Talent, Musa Motha who danced alone and then joined a larger group of disabled dancers, some wearing headguards. It was like they were saying “This is us and we are proud to be who we are.” Then the entire troupe donned colourful costumes that made them truly one and carried flames that they moved in synchronicity. It was breathtaking and beautiful. I felt privileged to watch because they took me somewhere else. The world seems a better place for it and it will stay in my head perhaps forever.
