Olympics and Ceremonies

Coming from the meticulous Beijing extravaganza that opened the summer Olympics two years ago, Vancouver (thankfully) presented a different face. If the Chinese spectacle was all about the sublime heights that can be achieved by near unlimited resources, Vancouver shied away from grand cultural statements, which is not to say that culture was obscured by the incumbent light and noise; in fact, ostensibly, culture was at the very forefront of the ceremonies. But culture was not flung in your face simultaneously by thousands of identically dressed and choreographed extras; it was just kind of there, chilling out, doing it’s own thing, and if you wanted to join in, that would be great, but the future of the country was not hanging in the balance.

As someone who was both awed and a little put off by the spectacle two years ago, it was kind of nice to watch something where not every choreographed triumph carried an onslaught of portentousness. When one of the giant icicle-things didn’t rise up out of the ground at the end for the torch-lighting, it was just kind of like, “Oh well. Woohoo Olympics!” instead of “This betokens shame for the public face of our nation in the world.” There were nonetheless some really beautiful moments and innovative presentations, executed in a soft, gently artistic style that contrasted with the Chinese event without diametrically opposing it. The video projection-floor was genuinely pretty cool and used in such a way that continually surprised, and the merging of the two dimensional with the space above it was lovely and startling. Some parts were kind of over-the-top and kind of ridiculous, but it’s the Olympics, so I guess I can’t really blame the producers for deciding that this was the time to just kind of let go.

I think it was a measure of the difference in approaches that after the Chinese ceremony, I felt the need to make grand cultural proclamations, to boldly differentiate between their culture and mine, while after this one I just wanted to go hang out with friends or something. Neither reaction seems to me bad, and both seem within the Olympic spirit. I’ve always loved the Olympics: the competition, the diversity, the way in which it remains such a defiant symbol of global communication and interaction. Both a fierce dedication to your country being the best and a willingness to relax a little bit seem compatible with those things.

And though I’m hesitant to set up this ceremony as the true counterpoint to Beijing, being winter instead of summer, the flipside of the openness and intimacy (relatively speaking) of these ceremonies is that there was perhaps a bit of a void left at its center. When the slam poet spoke, it was kind of interesting to me for two reasons: first, it was largely the kind of neo-romantic rhetoric that I associate with proclamations of Americanism (not that surprising I guess, but still it was a little odd to hear all these phrases about dreams and diversity and then hear “Canada” at the end of them); and second, that rhetoric, while inspiring and kind of wonderful, really does leave a bit of an empty hole at its center, as it is less about what is now than what will be. That impulse makes sense to me; but it also leaves me a little bit curious about what’s really at the other end of the spectrum from what we saw two years ago. London 2012 maybe?

- video of the opening ceremony, part 1