A huge dark tarpaulin – the size of the pitch at the Stade de France where the show will take place on 11 August – has been deployed. In the middle is an imposing platform, scaffolding and even a crane. It is in this green space, an hour from Paris, that the first rehearsals for the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games will take place in the evening (to ensure the same conditions as on D-Day).
While the secrets of the spectacular show on the Seine on July 26, the opening of the Olympic Games, are well kept, Thomas Jolly is gradually lifting the veil on the preparations for August 11. “I can’t wait to open the safe, it’s so full of surprises and things that I want to share… At this closing ceremony, it’s happier, more relaxed.”
The gymnastics section of the Paris firefighters at work. LP/Alexandre Delaitre
He continues: “We have a whole space modeled on the Stade de France to rehearse, whereas we were unable to reproduce the 6 km of the Seine. For the opening ceremony, everything is fragmented, and I myself will discover it that same evening. It will be a one-off and that’s what makes it so powerful. There, we are in a different relationship to time and space.”
No common thread between the shows
The performers are mainly circus artists, acrobats, dancers and even members of the firefighters’ gymnastics section. The music is transmitted through earpieces. No costumes yet, no lights or sets, “the show is in full construction”, smiles the artistic director of the four Olympic and Paralympic Games ceremonies, four “moments of celebration”.
Don’t look for a common thread between the shows. If it’s the same artistic team at the helm, it’s not a series. “The idea is always to take hold of the terrain we’re on. At the Stade de France, we’re working on the history of the Olympic Games, while on the Place de la Concorde (for the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games), we’ll take hold of the architectural motifs, the obelisk and the Champs-Élysées,” summarizes Thomas Jolly.
The ceremony on August 11, for which tickets are still available, will thus be a dystopia, a projection into the future. “It is important to show the beauty of the Games but also their fragility, and therefore their value,” points out Thomas Jolly. “I wanted us to celebrate the end of the Games, to celebrate this human monument. A monument that I think is fragile, because it is always in the noise of the world,” continues Thomas Jolly. Moreover, the Games, created in Antiquity, disappeared before being refounded.”
A nod to the political situation? “No”
History repeats itself. The authors have thus created a show “where we would imagine that the Games have once again disappeared and that someone would rebuild them, in a rather distant future”, a story according to the artistic director “to realize that this monument is precious and that this celebration that we will have, that evening with the athletes, will be a celebration in conscience.” It is this aerial scene ― which will take place in the middle of the artistic part scheduled to last about forty minutes � that the dancers and acrobats rehearsed Wednesday evening.
Night falls, on the stage, the performers are projected thousands of years later and find the remains of our civilization, those also of the Olympic Games that took place in 2024. “This dystopia allows us to project ourselves into the future and to question ourselves: what if the Olympic Games stopped?”, continues Thomas Jolly. “It’s sad and at the same time, it asks us more to believe in ourselves, in our future and to make important choices for all of us and for our common future.” A nod to the current political situation? “No,” swears the creator.
Tony Estanguet, president of the organizing committee (left), and Thomas Jolly, choreographer and director of the opening and closing ceremonies (right). LP/Alexandre Delaitre
Because, even if the ceremony “will carry a message that may not be linked to certain types of ideas” put forward by certain parties, the show “was imagined a year and a half ago.” “We are perhaps currently facing this type of questioning,” continues the artistic director. “We are being questioned about our living together and our common future. Shows are always meaningful, they must delight us, give us emotion but also make us question. It seemed important to me to show how precious the Olympic Games are.”
