Paralympics: Choreographers reveal secrets of spectacular opening ceremony

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00:00The Paralympics are in full swing in the French capital.

00:06They kicked off in style with a spectacular opening ceremony taking place for the first

00:10time outside a stadium on the Place de la Concorde.

00:14The kick-off was orchestrated by the same creative director who put together the much

00:18talked about opening ceremony for the Summer Games.

00:21They were two people who were a key part of the team.

00:24We'll get to talk to them a little later on, but first of all, here's Monty Francis with

00:28a recap of last night.

00:32As with the Olympics, the opening ceremony of the Paralympics happened outdoors in the

00:37heart of Paris, but this time under clear weather, complete with a flyover of jets painting

00:43the sky red, white and blue.

00:48At Place de la Concorde, which will host events of the Paralympics, dancers jumped on pianos

00:54and the French pop group Christine and the Queens performed.

00:58The Parade of Nations happened down the Champs-Elysees, with the Arc de Triomphe looming in the background.

01:04The opening ceremony was spectacular, it was really intimate, we've come all the way from

01:09Australia, didn't expect anything like that.

01:12It's really wonderful, a strong atmosphere with a lot of energy, good music, and people

01:22were really happy.

01:25Athletes and fans have once again come to Paris, filled with the Olympic spirit.

01:30Organizers say almost two million tickets have been sold.

01:33Having an event like the Paralympics, it definitely highlights and puts people's, what sometimes

01:41is perceived as a disability, it puts their abilities on stage, on the worldwide stage,

01:45so it's nice to see people with differences celebrated in such a broad way.

01:53The ceremony culminated with the lighting of the Olympic cauldron, which had already

01:57become a point of interest since its debut at the Olympics.

02:01The flame will fly over the City of Lights until the Paralympic Games conclude on September

02:068th.

02:07Well, we're going to get more insights into the opening ceremony because I'm joined in

02:14the studio by Alexis Auchan and Arnaud Brosson, who were both assistant choreographers and

02:19stage directors during the Paralympic opening ceremony.

02:23It's great to have you both in the World Roundup, thank you so much for joining me in the studio.

02:27Now, of course, you would have had a lot of input into last night.

02:32Can you talk us through what each of your jobs were in the run-up to the opening ceremony?

02:37Yeah, sure.

02:39So let's say we worked together, so we had the two hats of choreographer assistant and

02:44stage director assistant, but yeah, we worked as a team between the choreography work and

02:51some staging.

02:52Yeah, our job was mainly to assist Alexander Ekman, who was the artistic director of this

03:00particular ceremony and the choreographer, along with Thomas Joly in the team.

03:07And we had to really help him develop the choreography and how to stage this whole show

03:12and this big spectacle, because it takes literally a village to make this happen.

03:17Yeah, I was actually going to ask you about that.

03:19I want to know how much work goes into something like this.

03:22Like how much planning do you have to do in advance?

03:25How many hours of rehearsals happens?

03:27I believe it's a lot of planning, long hours of meeting, and it's been months that we've

03:33been working with Alexander, that he's been developing his ideas and workshopping with

03:39groups of dancers and then transmitting the choreography.

03:43But how many weeks?

03:44To give you a...

03:4660 days.

03:47Yeah.

03:4860 days of rehearsals.

03:49Okay.

03:50With the dancers, with the 150 dancers.

03:52Yes.

03:53Wow.

03:54Yeah.

03:55But to give you a number, for example, yesterday, more than 5,000 people walked just for the ceremony.

04:00Wow.

04:01Including artists.

04:02The security, the logistics, the travel, the artistic production.

04:08Yeah.

04:09Yeah.

04:10So that literally is a village.

04:11What were your favorite parts of last night?

04:15Oh, I would say one minute before the show starts.

04:19Okay.

04:20Because it was like, okay, now we are and cannot wait to see this nine-month baby finally,

04:26you know, getting delivered.

04:29There were definitely some highlights.

04:33The whole thing felt like a dream because there was such an expectation also to deliver

04:40strong messages along with the dance.

04:43Because there was that challenge of passing a call for action for a bit more inclusivity

04:53and acceptance in the world.

04:55And especially also in dance, how all the bodies are beautiful and different.

05:01But for me, one image that I will keep forever is the cast coming back with the torches into

05:08the garden of Tuileries.

05:10That was absolutely beautiful.

05:11They had tears coming down their face.

05:13I feel like talking to them, they said that it was like a unique experience that they've

05:18never experienced.

05:20Even though they were all professional, it was really a strong emotional moment for everyone.

05:25For sure.

05:26It was, yeah, as you said, very beautiful and also emotional.

05:29You mentioned that there was a message to send during this ceremony.

05:32We've definitely saw it, a message of inclusion and inclusivity.

05:36Obviously, we had disabled dancers showing their moves.

05:40It was amazing to see what sort of work goes into making sure that they're comfortable.

05:46That's probably different from the work that went into the opening ceremony for the Olympics.

05:51We spent a lot of workshop and creation time creating with them, for them, for their bodies.

05:59And outside of the dance studio as well, we had a lot of talk, conversation with different

06:07people with different disabilities.

06:11Everyone was really, how do you say that?

06:15How did we work?

06:17They gave us input on how to make that a global message, what we want to say with this.

06:28It's still hard to talk about it because it was very profound.

06:32Even for us, on an individual level, it changed us.

06:36Our relationship with disability and with our body.

06:41The more you know, the more we know, the more we can live together and we can bring that gap.

06:47Alexander really lifted creativity as a way to find new ways to go and reinvent a society

06:56and a place where we can live better together and where there's more accessibility for everyone.

07:02That's not only disabled, but elderly people or pregnant women.

07:10It's a better place for everyone.

07:12Of course, a key point during this opening ceremony was the fact that it took place outside.

07:17The very first opening ceremony taking place outside of a stadium for the Paralympics.

07:22What sort of work goes into preparing for that to be outside compared to if it did take place

07:29in a stadium?

07:32It's a challenge because you cannot control the weather.

07:37You were very lucky this time around.

07:39Beautiful skies, but also during the rehearsals it was very intense because during the day

07:44it was very hot for the cast to dance.

07:46For everyone who was working on stage, it was a challenge too.

07:50At the same time, it created something absolutely unique that you won't see ever again.

07:56The angles you could get to see the obelisk from the place and the screens around the fountains.

08:02All of this created a vision.

08:07It felt almost like it was meant to be, to happen there.

08:14The place of the name Concord really was reaching to where we want to be.

08:19How do we find Concord? How do we find togetherness?

08:23We really saw that. Arnaud, you were saying?

08:26Yes, it's amazing.

08:29Can you imagine dancing on this beautiful place with the sunset and the Paris sky?

08:40As you said, when the dancers left, we saw some tears.

08:44It was such a beautiful moment.

08:47I'm still believing.

08:50Nobody wanted to leave after.

08:53Even the audience, you could feel the silence.

08:55The quality of the silence and the depth during the performances.

09:00How everyone was really so connected and together.

09:04The International Paralympic Committee head, Andrew Parsons, called for an inclusion revolution yesterday.

09:10What do you think the legacy of yesterday's opening ceremony will be past the sport that we're going to see in the next few days?

09:19It's a good question.

09:22It's more about how the society can change rather than you, how you look at people.

09:31Now the question is more about the society and not an individual question.

09:38For sure, it made an impact that will echo long.

09:45There's going to be an after this, I guess.

09:48Art has that power to actually have an impact on society, I think, because it reaches to people's hearts.

09:56It can convey messages that can be understood better in an instinctive way that words cannot really describe.

10:05So I feel this is why art is always in the front guard of society.

10:13It's a kind of a guideline.

10:16I think yesterday night we had a really poetic message, a political message to create an artistic night.

10:24The mix between the two.

10:26I think art and sport are definitely going to play a very powerful role in all of this.

10:33Just briefly, I wanted to find out what the inspiration was for yesterday.

10:37Where did you draw your inspirations from?

10:40From sport. I think Alexander Ekman really wanted to work on the...

10:46It was an inspiration from sport, from collaboration and competition.

10:50But the competition with yourself and how you can be better, how you have to be in that focus mindset.

10:56And as a dancer also, it's very interesting.

10:58There's a lot of parallel between athletes, para-athletes and para-dancers and dancers.

11:04What we did yesterday was literally that. We trained for seven months just for one moment.

11:10And I think we can relate that to the two weeks of para-sport that we will see.

11:15Absolutely.

11:17I'm sure there was a lot of preparation.

11:20Sorry, regarding the inspiration.

11:24How you can transform a movement that comes from a sport or something that does not exist

11:31and then transform it into something artistic.

11:33I think real life actually, observation of real life.

11:36That's why Alexander is very known to play.

11:39So he was really good also in the youth mindset of like,

11:44how can we see this from a new perspective, a new angle and see things in a different way.

11:53Well, it was beautiful to watch, I have to say.

11:56I speak for everybody when I say you guys did a fantastic job.

12:01It was really, really great to see Alexi Auchan and Arnaud Boncent.

12:04Thank you so much for joining me in the studio.

12:06We really appreciate your time.

12:08Thank you very much.

12:09Arnaud Boncent, who were both assistant of choreographers and stage directors for the Paralympic opening ceremony, joining me there.

12:17Thank you so much for watching. Stay tuned.

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