Olympics Closing Ceremony

[toursenlair]

The last bit of it is here (but not the dramatic entrance):

http://deadspin.com/5934166/nbc-cut-nearly-an-hour-from-its-closing-ceremony-telecast-heres-everything-they-didnt-show-you-including-the-kinks-ray-davies

[Shirley]

I spotted a clip earlier today on Vimeo but it has been removed now (:

 

I'm sure more will surface but it may be a case of catch them when you can.

[Jan McNulty]

For live broadcasts, not for iPlayer repeats.

 

But how would anyone know what you were intending. I think it refers to the capability rather than the actual usage. We have erred on the side of caution with one of my nieces.

[Ian Macmillan]

John Lennon imagining 'no countries' in a situation in which 204 flags have just been paraded, by athletes bedecked in national sports kit, and at the end of a fortnight or so during which a competitive national medal table was a prime focus of attention. Subversive? Ironic? Ill-thought out? Just words?

[John Mallinson]

Oh, you're a hard man! One would like to think that the occasion brought peoples together, but perhaps that's a bit naive.

[Pas de Quatre]

Did anyone see the closing ceremony of the Winter Games in Canada two years ago? The games go to Russia next and the Russian ballet section at the hand-over was absolutely amazing, ours was embarrassing in comparison.

[GailR]

My favourite heart wrenching moment was John Lennon's image singing 'Imagine'. I took from the words that the world should look at the young people from 204 nations who had lived together in harmony despite their diverse cultural and religious beliefs.Yesterday an analysis of the closing ceremony in the Times offered the opposite opinion and rubbished the inclusion of this piece. Vive la difference

[Jan McNulty]

John Lennon imagining 'no countries' in a situation in which 204 flags have just been paraded, by athletes bedecked in national sports kit, and at the end of a fortnight or so during which a competitive national medal table was a prime focus of attention. Subversive? Ironic? Ill-thought out? Just words?

 

Well, I initially thought that Liverpool John Lennon Airport had paid an awful lot of money to get their tag line in the show (Above us only skies) but don't the words coincide with the ethos of the games? And surely many scenes during the Olympics and all the competitors mingling in the ceremony show that there can be a world without boundaries?

[porthesia]

I was disappointed in the choice of music. Where were the vocal talents of Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey, Adele, Catherine Jenkins and many, many others? Heavy metal originators Black Sabbath, Deep Purple etc, etc - not a note. A tiny bit of Led Zeppelin in the Opening Ceremony. Can't deny that the Floyd were well covered. And where oh where was anything from Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Tim Rice? Where would we be without their music and lyrics? The loop of music during the atheletes entry could have included more variation instead of repeating. We seemed to rely rather heavily on people who are unfortunately no longer with us and on the legacy of the Beatles. Having said that Eric Idle was perfect and I thoroughly enjoyed the remaining members of Queen and the Who - never ever thought I would say it but the Spice Girls were great.

[Guest chinafish]

My journey to the Olympics closing ceremony

 

When London won the bid 7 years ago, I was excited that the games was going to happen in a city where I live. I thought I might be able to get a few tickets to see some sports. And then about a year ago when they started saying they would need volunteer ceremonies performers and volunteer games makers -- now that really got me excited. 7 years ago I had just started doing ballet as an adult beginner, and now I dared to dream that I could be on stage at the Olympic Stadium. I have been working in IT, and have been performing with an amateur adult group. Since I started ballet I have also taken a teacher training course, but I still work in IT now.

 

So I filled in their application forms online. On 8th Oct I got a 1st round audition date for 3rd Nov. The 1st audition was at 3 Mills studios at Bow, and was very straight forward -- we were all given a number, there was a marked grid on the floor, and the walls were marked with "North, South, East, West." We were asked to follow instructions such as "Guys go to the east wall, ladies to the west wall" or "Aries to coordinate G1, Virgos to coordinate A-5" etc etc (we ended up making the olympic rings!). They had us line up in numerical order, then follow each other and a painted line on the floor to walk around the room. They also taught us a simple mime routine, and a simple dance routine (Something like, step 3 to the right, together. step 3 to the left, together. tap with the right leg, tap with the left leg, jump, and clap). To give an idea of age range, there were people in their 70s right down to barely qualifying at 18. In the icebreaker, some people were there watching the London 1948 games. As a dancer it was humbling to be in such an experience to bring me back down to earth -- movement sometimes does not come naturally to people, and I'm blessed to not have to struggle to co-ordinate myself most of the time.

 

At the end of the audition they asked people who have special skills to make themselves known -- NHS nurses, people who can BMX stunt bike, roller skate, ballet pointe dancers, among other things. My ears pricked when they said pointe. "I can do that!" I thought. I went and put my name down. They told us we would hear back within 48 hours.

 

I didn't hear anything again until 3 weeks later. At first I thought I didn't get through the 1st auditions while some of my other friends did. Turns out they hadn't sorted out the logistics for the pointe auditions (and probably could not until they got all the 1st round auditions done yet), and once they got a time and date they emailed us for a 2nd round ballet specific audition, with 1 week notice.

 

This time round we were given a room to warm ourselves up, then straight into the audition room. Cindy Jourdain and Nathan Clarke were there auditioning us. We were taught 2 sections from Swan Lake, a slower one from Act 4 and a grand allegro from Act 2. The studio floor was very slippery -- thinking back now it was useful to see if we sink or swim there because the stage surface was not much better. It was over very quickly, and we were told we would hear within 6-8 weeks.

 

Then began the agonising wait. I had other commitments that I needed to confirm or turn down, and not knowing if and how much time I would need to give to the ceremonies was very difficult. My offer came after 7 weeks (in mid-late Jan), which turns out to be one of the quicker ones to get an offer. I know of other people who waited in excess of 3 months in other sections of the ceremonies.

 

With the cast offer came the rehearsal schedule. We were given 7 rehearsal slots + show day (1 in May, 1 in June, 2 in July and the rest in the week running up to the games). All the rehearsals from May to July were 4 or 5 hours long, and the Aug times were "TBA". We were split into group A and B, with approximately 100 people in each group.

 

And then with 1 week to go, they added another rehearsal on the day after our 1st rehearsal. Needless to say a lot of people could not make it with short notice, quite a few people had to arrive late / leave early.

 

In the first rehearsal Kim Gavin was there, to tell us what was happening in the ceremonies. We waited with bated breath on what we were actually going to be doing. He started at the beginning, we were told about the sky line, the shape of the set, the street party. The box pyramid, the athletes coming in, the marathon medal ceremony, and the "Symphony of British Music" (the fact that it's going to happen - we did not know any of the songs / acts that were going to be on). Then comes the model / fashion segment, the mash up segment, and events that are mandatory like speeches and flags ceremonies etc, and the Rio segment.

 

Then Take that were going to perform.

 

Followed by us.

 

With Darcey.

 

Everyone was incredulous. We?! Perform with Darcey?! Eeeek!!

 

Kim proceeded to tell us that Darcey is going to be a phoenix and the spirit of the olympic flame. The idea that we dance to put out the flame, but that it's going to burn again 4 years later in Rio.

 

And then we were up on our feet to rehearse. We were rehearsed by Cindy Jourdain, Jonathan Howells and Alastair Marriott. Our set was about 4 mins 30 secs, we learnt it all in the first rehearsal. It was challenging choreography, as I could see quite a lot of the dancers who are like me, adult recreational dancers, and some were quite young, some are in commercial / musical theatre school training and could do pointe but it was not something they concentrated on in their training. However I could recognise some ex-professional ballet dancers, so there was a big range of ability in the group. We were also taken out in small groups to do our costume fitting -- coming back in the room to catch up by copying was quite hard. Those of us who were able to come back the next day had been able to consolidate what we learnt the day before and we had then a month to wait before the next rehearsal in June. The rehearsals were tiring, I remember after the first weekend of rehearsals it took me until Thursday to recover -- my whole body was aching and I had mysterious bruises appearing on my arms and legs.

 

In the beginning of July we moved to the 1:1 rehearsal venue in Dagenham. Even before we went to rehearse, we were told in the holding area that a lot of the steps had to be cut. A combination of reasons, due to the size of the stage (we have to start running much earlier or we won't make our final position), due to the rake (some fast turns / runs were not going to be safe), due to the width of the runways (some sideway steps were impossible unless we wanted to crowd surf onto the athletes), and also to coordinate with what Darcey was doing on centre stage.

 

Dancing in open air and on the stage was challenging. It started raining in our first run through outdoors on the ramps. We had to run across the puddles in our pointe shoes (cue completely soaked pointe shoes). The next rehearsal the weather was glorious and I got a bit sunburnt despite having sunscreen on. The ramps were built of wooden boards and I've had my share of splinters in my hands. The surface was so slippery with or without rain I was dancing in the constant fear of falling flat on my face. We were allowed elastics only on our pointe shoes so I was also worried about shoes coming off. (Note: we were given 1 pair of rehearsal shoes and 1 pair of performance shoes for the duration of the process)

 

Another privilege we were given was to watch the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony in the stadium. From a performer's point of view it was really useful to get a sense of the scale that we were going to perform in. Not to mention being able to watch the opening ceremony live, be in the olympic park, and just soak up the atmosphere.

 

We met Darcey for the first time in August. She said "Hi" to the whole group via the radio after our first run together. We didn't really get to see her dance because most of the time we have our back to her. We didn't get to see her when we were not on stage either -- understandably or else she'll probably constantly get mobbed.

 

We then had 1 dress rehearsal (we were told we weren't needed for the other dress rehearsal originally scheduled) at Dagenham with our full outfit and hair and makeup apart from our performance shoes (bearing in mind it was still a bit wet). We got to run our section twice, once in coordination with everyone else (I don't think Take That was there though, they had stand-ins) and once in isolation. We were allowed to watch on the sides of the other parts from around the Lennon head, but we still didn't know anything about the 1st section of the ceremony. It was surreal just to watch David Beckham and the Spice Girls walk so closely past us, later there was Jessie J and Tinie Tempah, and then turn around and there's Russell Brand (who got mobbed by us - he exclaimed "There's so many of you! I want a picture!"), and turn around again and there's David Gandy and Kate Moss and Lily Cole and all the other models.

 

On show day we got to the stadium at 11am, and got straight stuck in to do hair and makeup and warmup for 1 run through in the stadium (which happened around 4:30pm? I lost all concept of time...) As we understood everything was overrun so by the time we were finalising our placings around the cauldron (don't kneel too close or else we really will go up in flames...), the audience were already filing in.

 

The atmosphere was electric backstage. Everyone was just in the party mood, and we all wanted pictures of each other in costume. We heard through the radio that the show had started, and when people came back after their section they would say "Oh my god it's fantastic out there. Good luck and enjoy it you all look amazing!" There was a real sense of togetherness and we all wanted to put on a great show for the athletes, for the audience, and for the billions of people watching worldwide (I tried not to think too much about that...!!)

 

Finally at around 10:30pm we were told we have half an hour. It then started really to set it -- this is it! We made our final preparations (costume surgery, sewing our costumes into our shoes) When the time came we were led down to our entrances (called "vom"s). I think this was during the Freddie Mercury moments followed by Brian May and Jessie J. We waited, through the Rio handover, and finally Take That came on. We stood there waiting for our turn, singing and waving our arms along to "Rule the World". I think that calmed me a lot before we ran onto the stage.

 

And before we knew it, it was over. We danced our heart out, 3 months of sweat and tears and constant drilling of the choreography in my mind culminating into these short 5 minutes. As we were kneeling around the cauldron, and Darcey walking towards the flame, we heard people in the crowd shouting "Nooo!! Don't do it!!" But the inevitable came and the flame was put out, our cue to run off.

 

We waited in Vom 4 behind the cauldron until our cue to run back on. The fireworks were incredible. I managed to find my friends which was difficult as everyone looked the same... And broke ranks and ran into the athletes and performers on the ranks. I didn't have my camera with me, but a lot of the athletes wanted pictures with us. It's nice to know that my pictures will be in people's albums all over the world.

 

We were ushered off the stage (by some games makers who I am sure was desperate to leave) and got back to our dressing room by around 1am. We were trying to find out if there was anywhere we could go for an after party (or at least a drink!), and ended up at a bar that was open at Westfield shopping centre (just outside the Olympic Park). That's where the choir ended up and they kept singing (in real harmony -- very impressive as they surely must have been drinking), I met a few Olympians and coaches which was pretty cool.

 

One thing I did not expect through these 3 months was that Cindy, Jonathan and Alastair were so nice during the whole process. To be honest I felt embarrassed to dance in front of them, knowing their background. But they have always been encouraging, nice, and always had time for us to listen to what we were struggling with, offer help where it was needed. They were a calming presence to us when we were going crazy and nervous. I think I didn't want to believe it when they said we looked good.

 

Am I sad the choreography was simplified? No. I wanted to feel secure on stage. I didn't want to have to hold back because I felt at any moment I was going to fall flat on my face in front of billions of people. I wanted to be able to keep in sync as a corps de ballet with my fellow dancers. I'm sorry that it was embarrassing, but given that we had 7 rehearsals, we gave it our all and our best shot, and I'm proud of it.

 

Despite all the frustrations (cancelled rehearsals at short notice, extra rehearsals at short notice, call times at short notice, change call times at short notice, ruined shoes, missing shoes, things given out to some of the group and not others etc etc etc), the whole experience has been incredible and I would not have traded it for anything. It will be one very special piece of memory that I will be proud to tell my kids and grandkids about. This is one thing that I checked off my bucket list, even though 1 year ago it wasn't even on the list!

 

Sorry this has been so long, but it was pretty hard to sum up a year! It's been so hard to have to keep all of this secret for the entire year. Hope this provides a little bit of insight into the process, please feel free to ask questions!

[John Mallinson]

Thankyou very much for that. So good to get an insider's view of the event and the amount of work and effort to get it together. Given the numbers involved in the whole event (even more so the opening ceremony) it's amazing how smoothly it all seemed to go.

 

Also you can now consider yourself a member of the Royal Ballet - if the tv and papers say so you must be!

 

On a different topic, a letter-writer in today's Guardian wonders whether the bemused involvement of Eric Idle with the Indian dancing troupe was put is as a sideswipe at David Cameron. I would like to think so!

[Guest chinafish]

Thanks John! I think the Daily Mail published a few months back that Darcey was going to dance with 300 dancers from the Royal Ballet and obviously none of us were going to confirm nor deny it as we were sworn under secrecy. Am a bit bemused that the BBC could make such a mistake as our names were at the back of the programs etc.

 

Loved the status boost but not sure the dancers at the RB are going to be happy. Also felt that I would have and people would have appreciated more if they had said we were volunteers -- not all of us do ballet for a living and we managed to put on something decent.

 

I doubt the indian dance was done as a swipe to Mr Cameron as the group would have started rehearsing months ago.

[Ian Macmillan]

Chinafish: Let me add my thanks for your detailed insight into the process. I had heard a very little of this at 3rd hand, and your post fills things out nicely. The business of the '300 RB dancers' has been an obvious niggle, and I entirely take your point about having a preference for being described as a volunteer. It remains a pity that the TV work on the night seems to have diluted the dramatic point of the choreography and, even before learning a bit more about it all, it seemed at the time that much the best view was had by those present in the arena. As you say, a story for the grandchildren - and I'm delighted to hear that you found a suitable 'after' venue to top it all off.

[Jan McNulty]

Chinafish - I've loved reading the account of your experience. Thanks so much for sharing.

[Guest chinafish]

As far as I could see the camera crew for the closing had a lot less rehearsal time than the opening. We had cameras present for 2 rehearsals in Dagenham and 1 in the stadium just prior to the show. I recall the cameras were at different spots in those different runs so I can only assume they were still experimenting with angles.

 

I kind of expected the camera to zero in on Darcey so I'm slightly sad it didn't come across great on TV, but I hope the audience would have gotten a good view.

 

It was also a shame that a lot of the athletes didn't see us because they left before we came on. There was a steady stream of departing athletes when we were waiting in the Voms to go on. In front of my ramp were the Russian delegation -- we previously have wondered what it would have been like to crowd surf into the athletes -- it wouldn't have been possible because there were barely people in front of us by the time we were on.

[alison]

Chinafish, thank you so much for your long and marvellously detailed report. It sounds like an absolutely fascinating experience, and I'm delighted you chose to share it with us.

[Guest chinafish]

You're welcome alison Janet and Ian!

 

I read somewhere a question about the choreographers: Christopher Wheeldon choreographed for Darcey and the 4 men, while Alastair Marriott choreographed for us corps. (I believe Jonathan Howells, Cindy Jourdain and Jackie Barrett contributed too).

 

We didn't know who the 4 men were until our 1st rehearsal in August. I was squealing and jumping when I saw who they were, especially Jonathan Cope. A lot of my fellow dancers didn't know who any of the men were and indeed some have never heard of Wheeldon.

 

Bearing in mind we started rehearsing in May, the RB's season was still in full swing. I remember going to see the Metamorphosis triple and feeling chuffed that some steps and positions in our dance also appeared in Trespass.

[alison]

BTW, the sound has been criticised a lot, but a friend who was there told me it was fine in the stadium, but not so good when she watched the replay on TV.

[Beryl H]

I've noticed on several of these live BBC concerts that the sound isn't brilliant, volume has to be turned up a lot, I imagine it improves if you buy the DVD.

 

Thought the ballet wasn't too bad at all, must have been a scary ride for Darcey Bussell at the start though, finished with a good pose as the men lifted her.

 

BTW if anyone wants to see or record the opening ceremony it is repeated this Saturday BBC1 at 1pm-3.45pm

[Don Q Fan]

Ballet news has another behind the scenes account

http://balletnews.co.uk/ballet-backstage-first-hand-account-of-the-olympics-closing-ceremony/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+co%2FRudC+%28Ballet+NEWS%29

 

I see it was Wheeldon who choreographed the "ballet" - not impressed. I agree with Janet that BRB's Faster would have been brilliant in this situation it would have been perfect for the occasion!

As for the music where was Spandau Ballet with GOLD or Duran Duran with RIO?!

[Shirley]

I would be interested to hear from someone who watched from the performance from the stadium - I'm sure it was spectacular with the large corp de ballet. I know when they were shown on TV, friends who we were watching it with were stunned by the effect when it was shown.

 

I'm hoping that two versions may be put out on a DVD at some point - one showing the Wheeldon Piece and one showing the overall effect but I don't suppose that will ever happen.

 

For those who know 'Faster' - how well do you think it would it have transferred to a stadium and being danced on the ramps or would it have to have been danced completely in the centre. I assume it wouldn't have been used in the same scenario?

 

Edited to add the bit about the scenario.

Edited August 14, 2012 by Shirley

[Jan McNulty]

Faster was danced at the Hippodrome in Birmingham (advert - it's in one of the mixed programmes at Sadler's Wells in October) but the way it was staged I would guess that David Bintley could have reorganised it for the space available as long as the flooring was safe. From the earlier reports I think the dancers involved in the closing ceremony performed miracles on a slippery and raked performance area.

[Guest chinafish]

Found this clip of someone recording it in the stadium. Unfortunately sometimes it's wobbly and it kept filming away from the action, but it gives an idea.

 

[alison]

For those who know 'Faster' - how well do you think it would it have transferred to a stadium and being danced on the ramps or would it have to have been danced completely in the centre. I assume it wouldn't have been used in the same scenario?

 

That was what I was wondering, too. Anyway, we've known for so long (years) that the RB would be dancing in one of the ceremonies that I'm wondering whether the idea for Faster had been conceived by then?

 

I suppose that for a venue like this choreography is always going to require show and numbers rather than subtlety: rather like ENB's Swan Lake in the round, but much larger.

 

I think Darcey Bussell was very brave to do that stunt: rather her than me!

[alison]

BTW if anyone wants to see or record the opening ceremony it is repeated this Saturday BBC1 at 1pm-3.45pm

 

Thanks, Beryl, but did you mean the opening or the closing ceremony? The timing doesn't seem to be right for either.

 

I see it was Wheeldon who choreographed the "ballet" - not impressed.

 

Technically, Wheeldon and Marriott.

[alison]

Those of us in the US did not get to see any of it! I watched the delayed prime time broadcast because I did not have access to the live streaming. Our NBC network decided that the US did not need to see any of the ballet at all! The only reason I made a conscious decision to try to see the Closing Ceremonies was to see Darcey Bussell! So frustrating. Can't any videos online that can be watched in the US yet either. Hmm.. will have to get my dd in Russia to download them so I can see them eventually.

 

Following the BalletNews links leads to this one which they claim works outside the UK: http://www.rtve.es/londres-2012/

I couldn't get it to work, myself, but maybe you'll be luckier?

[Beryl H]

Thanks, Beryl, but did you mean the opening or the closing ceremony? The timing doesn't seem to be right for either.

 

Definitely a repeat of the opening ceremony, 18th August BBC1 1-3.45pm, slightly shortened.

 

 

 

 

[Pas de Quatre]

Ballet news has another behind the scenes account

http://balletnews.co...C (Ballet NEWS)

 

I see it was Wheeldon who choreographed the "ballet" - not impressed. I agree with Janet that BRB's Faster would have been brilliant in this situation it would have been perfect for the occasion!

As for the music where was Spandau Ballet with GOLD or Duran Duran with RIO?!

 

As the next venue is Brazil I was definitely expecting RIO!

 

But in general so much music was missing, OK we had a little Elgar in the opening ceremony, but what about Gilbert and Sullivan, Noel Coward, Andrew Lloyd Webber?

[Shirley]

chinafish - thanks for posting the video

[alison]

However I was amused and somewhat startled to hear the terminally boring Huw Edwards announcing Ms Bussell and "200 hundred dancers from the Royal Ballet." Won't Kevin be pleased when he comes back from his hols to find this balletic bonanza awaiting him!

 

The ROH website puts the whole thing more accurately, of course: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/balletic-climax-to-london-2012-closing-ceremony

[Elliepops]

The ROH website puts the whole thing more accurately, of course: http://www.roh.org.u...losing-ceremony

 

Spotted my daughter in the behind the scenes clip they have also put up, the rehearsal shown was of her "half" and then the shots at the 1:1 in costume are of her ramp.

 

As Chinafish said, all the dancers and chaperones had to sign confidentiality agreements so couldn't talk about what they were doing, even to correct miss information. The spirit of the flame section was one of the ones that the show producers wanted kept the most under wraps.None of the corps had seen how Darcey actually got to the stage until the day and the media pack distributed before the night had none of the detail present for other sections and artists.Programmes did however credit the principal dancers, the paid performers and all unpaid volunteers, the RBS students and ENB company dancers were listed with the volunteers.

I think a lot of confusion stems from the fact people / journalists and broadcasters worked on the assumption "if so and so said it it must be true" and just repeated the same. We've got some lovely pictures from websites of my daughter and friends in their flame costumes described and captioned as being performers in the Rio segment. This is particularly true on sites in the US as they didn't show the ballet section and flame extinguishing at all and so a lot of journalists have gone - "oohh look really bright colourful costumes they MUST be Rio."

Edited August 15, 2012 by Elliepops

[Ian Macmillan]

A LondonDance interview with Coordinator, Cindy Jourdain:

 

http://londondance.com/articles/interviews/cindy-jourdain/

[taxi4ballet]

It makes you wonder - they knew months in advance that there would be a couple of hundred ballet dancers on pointe.

 

Why on earth did they build a stage with quite so many steep slopes?!