Last night at 8.30pm GMT the world began to change.
The London 2012 Paralympic Games opened, with a ceremony full of life, vitality, humour – and choc full of disabled performers and figureheads. As Jim White wrote in the Daily Telegraph:
Opening ceremonies of the Paralympics have, in the past, been earnest, insipid affairs. Jokes were not in abundance. Hastily-constructed afterthoughts to the main Olympics, they were forgotten soon after they had finished. Or, in the case of Atlanta, while they were still in performance. Not last night. At the Olympic Stadium, 62,000 paying customers were treated to three hours of noisy, colourful, bolshie brouhaha. Plus umbrellas…
It was always going to be umbrellas – or sunglasses or pyjamas knowing Jenny Sealey – one of the co-directors of the Opening and Closing ceremonies, and Artistic Director of Graeae (if you’ve seen the PUSH ME film on The Garden, you would have recognised the sway poles!)
Twitter went ballistic – I particularly love the drinking game that was invented – down one shot for every mention of ‘inspirational’. Laurence Clark would have been proud!
The Opening Ceremony marks a Paralympics that are here to change attitudes as much as to win medals – its about reframing people’s attitudes to what they see. No one can watch Stephen Hawking and not see the scientist; we can’t see David Toole, who undertook a solo and subsequent ‘flight’ in the performance, without seeing the dancer. We didn’t see any of the athletes as they poured into the stadium as anything other than athletes, ready to make their countries proud.
And its not just the Paralympics that now begin. Today marks the first day of Unlimited, the festival held at the Southbank (with linked events at other venues) that profiles and promotes the work of Deaf and disabled creative talent from across the UK and beyond. Its where all our PUSH ME artists will finally come together – showcasing work, sharing practice and deepening debate. Its going to be fantastic and we are going to be there filming it.
The first set of 90 second films in the PUSH ME Collection are up, the second set are almost ready to go, and now its time to concentrate on the creation of our 30 minute documentary based on the PUSH ME artists at Unlimited. Like last night, its time to shake things up. It’s time to show everyone just what disabled people are capable of.
As Oliver Holt said in the Daily Mirror:
Before a new flame was lit in this magical London summer, the words of an Ian Dury song rang out around the Olympic Stadium last night. ‘Hello to you out there in Normal Land,’ the lyrics to Spasticus Autisticus went, ‘you may not comprehend my tale or understand.’ Normal Land watched on. Not with distaste. Or disdain. Those kinds of emotions began to seep away a long time ago. Not even with indifference. No, Normal Land gazed at the Opening Ceremony for the London Paralympics with admiration, even a little envy.