Today the news is full of the end of the Olympics, following the closing ceremony last night and the extinguishing of the olympic flame.

But there is another way to look at it – it means its only 15 days now until the Opening of the summer Paralympics, with an opening ceremony co-directed by none other than Jenny Sealey, Artistic Director of Graeae, whose PUSH ME film based on her production The Garden is due to go live on The Space this week.

So whats it going to be like? Will it have the humour, the self-depreciation and the colossal spectacle of Danny Boyle’s opening extravaganza? Or will it have the party like vibe of Kim Gavin‘s closing ceremony?

All we know is the theme – enlightenment – and that circus performers on a 35 metre rig have a part to play.

In a recent article in the Guardian, Jenny said the team shared the Paralympic values of

“equality, inclusion, participation, determination and going for it”.

She said they had been given a blank canvas to create an opening ceremony that was both exciting and terrifying.

“Our inspiration really is about looking beyond appearances.”

And with the paralympics comes the Unlimited Festival at Southbank. If you are planning to be in town, do get booking tickets, even for the free events as things are starting to sell out fast.

Its all starting to build, really, not come to an end. Its a bit like PUSH ME really – we should have our first 12 films, one for each artist, online this week – and I can’t wait!

(photo by ell brown).