For nine months now, the Swedish star choreographer has been in Paris, working full-time on the opening ceremony that will be broadcast live around the world on Wednesday evening.
Dance is the big thing in this opening ceremony, it's incredibly cool, he says over the phone a few days ago.
Alexander Ekman, 40, has long had the world's dance scenes as his workplace. His "Play" – where the dancers, among other things, moved in a bright green ball pit – had its premiere at the Paris Opera in 2017 and was seen by those who would later appoint him choreographer for the opening of the Paralympics. Before an audience of around 300 million TV viewers plus 65,000 people on site, his largest and most comprehensive work will now have its premiere.
A theater suddenly feels very small, it's been exciting. It's a huge work of art.
20 World Stars
On the newly built stage at Place de la Concorde in Paris, 150 dancers will perform together with 20 specially selected world stars who have some form of disability, which roughly reflects the proportions of humanity as a whole.
7 of the 20 are wheelchair-bound.
We've really looked for dancers who radiate a new kind of pride, says Alexander Ekman.
The opening ceremony's responsible, Thomas Jolly, wanted a ceremony that was both entertaining and political, and therefore turned to Ekman, whose art he thinks "transcends the body's boundaries", he says in a press release. Ekman and his French colleagues started by reading studies and interviewing Paralympians to find out what's important to them.
We heard that there's still a lot of work to be done to create inclusion and access in society for people with disabilities.
Visibility
When Paralympics founder Ludwig Guttmann organized a championship for spinal cord injuries in 1948, a basic idea was to use sports to bring together different worlds and make them visible, emphasizes Ekman.
It's incredibly beautiful, and now it's grown to this. I'm proud and happy to be part of this movement.
By depicting "paradoxical situations", he hopes to change the view of people living with disabilities. The choreography also includes a story that remains secret until the very end.
It's supposed to be a surprise, but it's fantastic to be able to use art as a carrier of important messages.
The opening ceremony will be broadcast on SVT2/Play on Wednesday, August 28, from 8 pm to 11 pm.
Erika Josefsson/TT
Facts: Alexander Ekman
TT
Born: 1984 in Stockholm.
Occupation: Dancer and choreographer.
Background: Started at the Cullberg Ballet in 2005, debuted as a choreographer in 2006 with "Unknown art?". His latest work in Sweden, "Hammer", had its premiere at the Gothenburg Opera in 2022 and will return there after the turn of the year. "Kuckel 2" will tour with Dansnät Sverige in the fall and reach Västerås, Örebro, Gothenburg, Knivsta, Växjö, Karlshamn, Piteå, Luleå, and Falun.
