Lorraine balletTristan Ihne has been dancing professionally for almost two decades. But on July 26, he gave a performance unlike everything he had done before: with around 200 other dancers, he danced at the top of a golden platform filled with water next to the Seine river in an 8-minute room per Maud Le PladecAs part of the Olympic opening ceremony in Paris.
“The best part for me was to feel the energy of the group,” he says. “We were here with mixed generations and mixed training styles. It was incredible.” He had never participated in such a great performance, nor danced for such a massive world audience. “There is nothing to compare,” he says.
This group energy has led not only to a memorable spectacle but also to another type of French tradition: the threat of a strikePosed by the French performing artists' Union SFA-CGT. When the dancers began to repeat together a few days before the ceremony, they realized that the amount they were paid for the diffusion rights varied considerably – from 60 to 1,600 euros. Protestant dancers also wanted travel and paid housing costs. “The collective contract specifies that if you hire a person from more than 40 kilometers, they should covered their expenses,” explains Ihne, who has participated in the demonstrations. In the end, the event organizers responded to some of the requests and the dancers abandoned their threat of strike.
Dancer Magali Brito – An artist with an air dance troop Retouramont Companywhich occurred during the ceremony on the scaffolding of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame and with the heavy metal group Gojira Costumes by Marie Antoinette Dépapitées– Says that even if she felt for the dancers, their increase seemed relatively minor compared to the greater problems surrounding the games. “I would have liked to have a strike on the rights of many people in Paris who have been completely distorted,” she said, highlighting the thousands without permanent housing that were Envoy de Paris Before the games.
However, she was happy to participate in the ceremony – even if everything went exactly as planned. For example, Brito says that she and the other Retouramont dancers were supposed to be suspended along the building walls during the Gojira concert. “But after security problems, they did not allow us to hang on to the walls, so we made a few poses in the windows with costumes,” she said.
There was also the infamous rain during the ceremony, which caused major problems in particular to the dancers of the Moulin Rouge, which occurred on a smooth surface to the right by the river. “For us, it was good because we were going to play in the water anyway,” said Ihne. “But for the other dancers, it made things more difficult – I give them even more credit.”
Brito says that for her and for many dancers, any additional challenge was worth participating in a ceremony that made such a statement. “Politically, it was very important to be able to participate in this event,” she says. “In France, we just had new electionsAnd it was good to be able to participate in something showing people of each color, each type of body and each sex. “”
