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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.