My Opening Ceremony Experience

Posted by Cynical Sarah on February 13, 2010

This week as the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremony approached, there was much media talk about how it would compare to what China did for the Beijing Summer Olympics two years ago. Could it compare? How could Canada top what China did?

It was all talk from the media, though, and not a peep from the Vancouver Olympic Committee trying to make comparisons or declarations of trying to be bigger and better. They’re primary objective was mainly to keep the show a surprise, not worry about doing something better.

A wise decision in my mind, because there was just no way we could compete with the spectacle that China put on.

For starters, China has a much bigger pool of people to pull from to pull off a show like that. They have more than 1.3 billion people; Canada has a little more than 33 million. I think someone could crunch the numbers every which way possible and not be able to come up with the same amount of people China did for their Opening Ceremony and still be able to keep the country running at the same time.

Canada just doesn’t have the man-power, the dedicated money for the production or the rehearsal time to put together the kind of spectacle that China did. People have to work after all – we can’t dedicate 15,000 people full-time to put something together.

But I think that ended up working to Canada’s advantage for the Opening Ceremonies. In some ways it was appropriate China had so many people in their show, flooding the stage with bodies, because their nation is so packed with people. For Canada, it was appropriate that less people filled a vast space, just like the nation itself is so huge with such a relatively small amount of people to fill it.

The scene with the Alberta Ballet Troup dancing amoung the giant trees was a perfect way to create that idea visually. That amount of dancers may have been perfect or even too much to fill your average theater stage, but in BC Place Stadium, you couldn’t have guessed they are actually one of Canada’s largest ballet groups.

Another advantage China has over Canada in creating their show is the age of their nation. There are so many significant cultural advances they can pull from through their thousands of years of history as opposed to Canada’s couple hundred.

I think we did a great job of showing off the youth of the nation as well as bringing in the rich Native history that does go back much further than Canada’s actual age. The show opened with an official welcome from B.C.’s First Nations and brought in dancers from other Native tribes from across the nation as well. That tribal flavor continued throughout the show with artistic elements like the salmon design swimming up river.

It helped represent the history of the Province well, and some of the other elements I thought highlighted that were:

• The pod of orcas swimming across the stadium. It’s amazing what they can do with light and projectors to bring a pod of whales to life on land.
• The giant trees in the style of Emily Carr. They didn’t say anything about it during the broadcast, but the giant trees that the ballet troup danced through were very reminiscent of Emily Carr’s work. She is one of the area’s best-known artists and you can see her work at the permanent exhibit in the Vancouver Art Gallery.

There were a few things that I felt represented the Canadian spirit as a whole too. The use of the fall leaves in the fiddling segment was one. I had no idea that fiddling was such a predominant cultural thing for all regions of Canada. (Helper Troy didn’t realize it either, and he’s Canadian.) However, Canadians have a great attachment to that maple leaf on their flag and to see it so well-represented in the fall fiddling segment was right on track with the Canadian spirit.

That could really only be topped by the poetry slam guy, Shane Koyczan, performing his “We Are More.” I am not yet a Canadian citizen, but there were segments of his poem that fit the Canadian spirit so well that even I had chills. He perfectly captures the politeness and openness that Canadians are known for with his lines about “please and thank yous” and the thought that Canadians retain such a strong connection to their country no matter where their travels and lives take them elsewhere in the world.

I’ll also admit, I’m also more than a little envious of Koyczan and his ability to put together something so simple that paints such a vivid picture and elicits such strong emotion.

Before I move on from the cultural portion of the show, I have to comment on K.D. Lang’s performance as well. I was a little disappointed with Nelly Fertado and Brian Adams earlier in the show. There were two people that should have been able to turn the Opening Ceremony into a party, but it somehow just fell flat for me. Sarah MacLachlan’s performance was better, but still now a “wow” moment.

That “wow” musical moment came with K.D. Lang singing “Hallelujah.” The simplicity of it helped build such a powerful moment, letting her voice and the song shine through rather than being muddled by any spectacle going on around her. Her performance was nearly the overall highlight of the night for me – beaten out only when Koyczan had his moment.

The most anticipated part of the night, of course, was the lighting of the Olympic cauldron at the stadium. Who was going to bring the torch in and who would be chosen to actually light the cauldron? In the end, it was lit by three (though it should have been four) athletes.

Wheelchair hero/athlete Rick Hansen brought the flame into the dome. From there he handed it off to Catriona Le May Doan, who passed it to Steve Nash, who passed it to Nancy Greene who then passed it to none other than Wayne Gretzky.

Those final four athletes were then supposed to each light a stem leading up to the main Olympic cauldron. Unfortunately technical difficulties meant only three stems appeared as the cauldron set itself up in the middle of the dome, and I’m pretty sure it was one of the women who was out of luck with getting to light it, but I’m not sure which one.

Wayne Gretzky had been everyone’s best guess on who would light the cauldron Friday, but there had been flat out denials that he would be “the one” by Olympic organizers earlier this week. I guess technically he wasn’t “the one” but instead one of many.

I”m not sure if the lighting of the cauldron was as much of a powerful moment as it usually is when it’s lit by just one person. I remember when Mohammad Ali lit the summer Olympics torch in Atlanta, and it was an amazing moment to see. This didn’t effect me nearly as deeply, but then again, I’m not a Canadian either.

Though I didn’t feel the power of the moment, I do recognize that the group effort is another prime example of the Canadian spirit. There wasn’t just one great person they wanted to give this honor too, so they let them share it. Plus it has taken a group effort across the land and across cultures to make this country what it is.

Of course, then The Great One got to go to the outdoor cauldron and light it by himself. So he did get his own special moment and the people of Canada got what they wanted and expected for the lighting too.

So my overall impression of the Opening Ceremony – Did Vancouver top what Beijing did? No – but only in the sense of size and spectacle. If you’re looking at heart though, we had just as much as or more than the Beijing event. The spirit was there, and Canada was able to show the world what it’s all about at heart. In that respect it was a rousing success.

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Tags: 2010 Olympics, Olympics, opening ceremony

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