I was in the Olympics Closing Ceremony. I swear I was! You just didn’t see it!
For whatever reason, the live CTV coverage didn’t show what my group was doing in the ceremony at all. That’s fine, we put on a good show for the people who were in the audience and I’m hoping that we get a bit of coverage in the edited version that will pop up on Video on Demand in the next day or so.
What you didn’t see was approximately 370 hip hop dancers in brightly coloured hoodies and toques, splattered with black light reflective paint, dancing in the aisles on the first level of seating. We came down from the second level screaming and partying right after k-os finished his performance and were there to highlight what the centre performers (AMAZING b-boys and hip hoppers one of which, Jheric, is one of my regular teachers and the choreographer for the whole hip hop section. Yay Jheric!) were doing. And to make the audience feel like they were right there with us. Because they were! They were sitting right next to us, less than a foot away! And loving every minute of it!
And, quite literally, we CLOSED THE SHOW. We danced, threw our Peace signs to the world and that was it. The show was done and we were running back up to where we came from. That’s AMAZING. What’s even more amazing is the fact that, for the first time in Olympics history, hip hop was incorporated into a ceremony. It’s a big part of the fabric of any urban culture, and Vancouver was the first city to finally bring it to the front. That’s huge and so incredible.
My whole Ceremony experience was absolutely unforgettable. I’m so happy and so proud of all the work we and every other performer, volunteer, production crew, artistic crew, catering, janitorial, the works accomplished. It was a giant daunting task and we pulled it off and I’m so happy with how it turned out. I don’t even mind that the artists that were picked to perform in the concert section weren’t what most Canadians would have chosen first. I understand why they were, though. Those that were asked to perform are, for the most part, Canadians who have made it worldwide. They are known internationally and they come from Canada. What’s not to be proud of in that? They may not be your personal taste, but they worked hard and they made it and have helped put Canada on the map. And that’s cool.
Also cool? Seeing it all (or, some of it anyways) from behind the scenes.
Waiting outside the large loading door at the back of BC Place for our turn to be let in, only to see thousands of twinkling red and white lights and Alanis Morrisette singing beautifully from the bottom of the ramp where the athletes walk in when that door did open. Cheering for the red and white snowboard kids when they came back to the holding area across the street after watching what they created on the TVs set up for us while we waited. Getting photos taken with all the Mounties and hockey players and lumberjacks and explorers while we waited for our turn. Sharing the gold medal moment with 2000 fellow performers glued to those previously mentioned TVs, jumping on chairs and hugging and screaming and singing Oh Canada. Listening to the prompts those same fellow performers were getting during their sections on the headsets we all wore and knowing they were killing it out there. Waving to Michael Buble as he drove past us in a golf cart following his performance, looking sharp in his white tux. Knowing the William Shatner was going to be involved and not being able to tell any of my uber-nerdy friends about it. Seeing more than one of the concert acts perform to a nearly empty stadium during dress rehearsal. Getting told to “Make way for the moose!” during our first BC Place rehearsal as the giant moose were being manhandled through to their storage areas, squishing us (laughing hysterically) against the walls. And so much more.
It was all such a special experience. And kind of unreal that I’d been rehearsing since December and then, once our 2 minute piece of choreography was performed, it was done. And I think we did ourselves proud.
