Loud and Stompy for Enlightenment, the 2012 Paralympics Opening Ceremony

Hours of rehearsal for a 15-minute segment

And it was totally worth it! Around 3000 volunteers spent countless weekends rehearsing for the Paralympics Opening Ceremonies, called “Enlightenment”, first at Three Mills Studios, then in a dis-used Dagenham car park and finally, at the Olympic Stadium.  Over and over, our company, called “Loud”, practiced a 15-minute routine to follow the Athlete’s Parade, set to ‘Spasticus Autisticus’, which was performed by Graeae Theatre Company and Orbital. Stephen Hawking even had a cameo (complete with the lit-up glasses)!

I still remember the routine, I think!

It’s been a few months, but whenever I hear the song, I can kind of remember the moves that go along with it. There were about 100 quartets, each member with specific choreography – I was a “C” in a quartet in the Pod group of the Loud company, and much of my routine was spent flinging a lightweight tent (the “pod” part) around before joining the rest of the company to stage a huge protest (the “loud” part) in front of a giant inflatable of Alison Lapper Pregnant (by artist Marc Quinn).

I’m in this one, too but harder to pick out as I’m nearly concealed by Alison Lapper’s butt cheeks. Image courtesy BBC.

At every practice session, we got a free lunch (yay!), and months [5 years] later, I still never want to eat a Nature Valley granola bar again. Unless I start to like MDF sawdust as a snack…

Dusty granola bars aside (very far aside), this was my first time ever joining as an “extra” for a live (or filmed) production…and I LOVED EVERY MINUTE! Sure, it was hard work, but I thoroughly enjoyed being a small contribution to the success of the Opening Ceremonies and look forward to Rio 2016.

One last bit of advice, when the going gets tough…

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