E-Paper
Man behind Athens' ceremonies becomes cultural sensation
The man behind the Athens Olympics' opening ceremony is reluctant to call his work a success, despite worldwide acclaim for his evocative tableau of 3,000 years of Greek history and culture.
The man behind the Athens Olympics' opening ceremony is reluctant to call his work a success, despite worldwide acclaim for his evocative tableau of 3,000 years of Greek history and culture.
"I hope this stays in the hearts and minds of people. That would honor me greatly," said the 40-year-old choreographer-director Dimitris Papaioannou, who has become an overnight cultural sensation for the opening even as he scrambles to put together the closing ceremony.
"Let's see what happens later on before we can call it a success," he said.
Sunday's Olympics finale will focus on the Greeks' love of the "glendi" or celebration through traditional dances, vastly different in tone and character than the intensely artistic opening. That show may be best remembered for a comet igniting the five Olympic rings that burned in a lake in the centre of the stadium. "In the beginning, we introduced ourselves," Papaioannou said of his master plan. "At the end, we want to get everyone up to dance and dance to Greek rhythms."
From afar, the plaudits have been unabashed. Many newspapers congratulated Athens on its opening ceremony with headlines such as the one from the Shanghai Daily, which read, "Athens Opens in Style."
"I've read some things that have brought tears to my eyes," said Papaioannou, whose career has taken him from drawing comics, to painting, dance and directing.
Close to home, the applause has been unanimous for not only helping Greece make a good first impression in the world's eyes but also for making an artistic vision meaningful to the average person. "A genuine artist," wrote the conservative daily Kathimerini. "The time came for the so-called 'cradle of civilization' to undergo a test on culture and artistic beauty before a global audience."
His neighbours in the middle-class suburb of Kalithea sent him flowers and thanked him "for giving us the opportunity to see the beauty of life through your eyes."
Greatly influenced by cinema, particularly Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction movie "2001: A Space Odyssey," Papaioannou used the medium in the opening ceremony to accentuate images. Among them was a giant Cycladic statue representing an ancient form from Greece's Cyclades islands. The form broke apart to reveal other figures from Greek history.
