China stepped into the world’s spotlight with a spectacular ceremony to open the 29th Olympiad last week Friday.
And what a ‘coming out’ it was. China did not disappoint. Awesome, spectacular, breathtaking, stunning were some of the words used to describe the event. It was an occasion that we at The Scene had eagerly looked forward to.
A masterpiece of artistic perfection was unveiled that night and we were just a (very) tiny part of the millions that watched the spectacular ceremony. The Chinese have a rich history and many different aspects were showcased. The exquisite choreography of the drumming and the perfect timing of the people, encased within boxes which were moved in harmonious waves left us stunned.
The acrobats elicited ‘wows’ and the magical fireworks show was unlike what we have ever seen. The lighting of the Olympic flame itself was another memorable highlight from an evening of outstanding performances. The technological aspects were another marvel. The preparation, which would have gone into this ceremony, to achieve such harmony, was surely long and gruelling but it was worth it. For a couple of hours, we lost ourselves in the extravagant show. China rocked.
It was a little disappointing that we only got a short glimpse of Guyana’s delegation during the parade of nations, but blame that on NBC. Since we did not get to see the entire opening ceremony, hopefully at some time, it would be re-broadcast.
In viewing the magnificent spectacle, our thoughts inevitably turned to thinking about what the opening ceremony of the tenth Caribbean Festival of Arts (Carifesta) would be like. With our rich Caribbean culture, we expect and hope and wish it would be an excellent ceremony and we are willing to say that even if it measures up to a tenth of the Olympics opening ceremony, we would be happy. We can guess at what some aspects of the ceremony would be like, but we also want to be pleasantly surprised.
However, with just a couple of days remaining, it seems that some have still not grasped that the festival is upon us, but we have had our say on this before and expressed our concern, and as it is now we can only hope for the best.
For a period of ten days, the Caribbean is going to come to our home and we at The Scene welcome them and expect a memorable festival. In the meantime, we continue to marvel at China’s opening ceremony. Did we say it before? The opening ceremony rocked.
(stabroekscene@stabroeknews.com)
