Opening Ceremony, 7 July 2005

The Belgrade Theatre presents The Spirit of Coventry, the Opening Ceremony for the International Children's Games 2005.

The Belgrade Theatre’s Special Projects and Events Team has a long track record of producing large-scale outdoor events in Coventry, including the “Millennium Mysteries” and “The Mysteries 2003” in the Cathedral Ruins and “Firebird”, a New Year’s Eve Celebration in Millennium Place in 2003.

The team was delighted to be asked to produce the Opening Ceremony for this prestigious event and recognised it as an event that would offer a number of wonderful opportunities. Firstly, it offers a chance to invest in the ingenuity and creative skills of artists living and working in the city. It’s also a chance to work with a large number of participants, many of whom have never been involved in creating and performing before.

It’s an opportunity to create a memorable and extraordinary spectacle that tells the unique story of Coventry to international visitors and to local people; to further develop the City as a producer of major events and to help build the profile of the City as a cultural centre and a leader in world peace and reconciliation. An event on this scale is also a chance to bring together local artists, organisations and businesses working in partnership to share skills and resources to create an extraordinary event for Coventry.

The Spirit of Coventry is about celebration and welcoming the world to our great city and this generosity of spirit has been echoed in the positive way in which our many funding partners and sponsors have embraced the International Children’s Games and worked with us to make it happen. Without their support it would not have been possible to put on the scale of spectacle that such a great event deserves.

The funding partners are Coventry City Council, Belgrade Theatre, Belgrade Plaza, European Regional Development Fund, Advantage West Midlands, Arts Council of England, CVOne, Creative Partnerships and Thomsonfly.com.

It has been immense fun working on this event and an artistic and logistical challenge which has tested the team, and the many artists and technical staff working with us to the limits. It’s brought together some 1100 performers, including 100 drummers, 100 singers, dancers, cheerleaders, actors, musicians, pyrotechnicians, choreographers, gymnasts and aerialists, with 1500 costumes, 10 floats and backpacks created by a team of 25 makers and designers, inspired and aided by 500 young people from Coventry Schools who joined in with the Creative Partnerships Spirit of Coventry Producers and Curators Project.

Our deep felt thanks to all those who have given their time, creative energy and amazing commitment and above all belief in this extraordinary project. Creative Coventry has a wealth of talent, a vibrant artistic community – we have worked with just a small part of it. Thanks to all the dancers – Freeman Dance, Rhapsody Academy of Dance, Hulme Academy of Dance, Alaine Academy,Michelle Lievers, Belgrade Youth Theatre, Bromwell Academy of Dance, Kombat Breakers, Cov Squad Cheerleaders, Gravity’s Angels, Cov Youth Dance, Celtica, the performers, Highly Sprung, Freeman Saturday Group, the Community Group, to our choir,Worldsong, and our drummers, Coventry School of Samba, Phase One, Masterclass and Dhol First, and all our snare players, and Spitfire Pyrotechnics and all
our schools on the Creative Partnership project – Earlsdon, Finham Park and Finham Primary, Styvechale, Ernesford Grange, St. Bartholomews, Pearl Hyde, Southfields, Courthouse Green, and Hillfields Early Learning Centre, and all their hardworking and committed teachers and to all our individual community performers and professional performers.

Also, thanks to a fantastic professional team of artists, choreographers, composers, musical directors, designers,
makers, technicians,managers, administrators, co-ordinators, and chaperones – and our partners in all this, Jai Purewal and his team at the Butts Arena, Sarah Jackson and the Performing Arts Service, Jo Trowsdale and Creative Partnerships, John Timms and the team at Montgomery Leisure Services, Brian Parker and his team on the City Council opening ceremony committee and John McGuigan and his office, Coventry University and NP Aerospace, Allesley Press, all those who sit on our advisory group, the Belgrade staff, CVOne, Kix and Mercia and everyone who has contributed in some way to this project.

Thank you for coming on the journey with us and making it
happen!

Jane Hytch – Producer and Kathi Leahy – Creative Director
Belgrade Special Projects and Events Team

Creative Partnerships
 As well as the many young Coventry athletes taking part in the International Children’s Games, many of Coventry’s school children have been part of the opening event thanks to a special collaboration between the Belgrade Theatre, Creative Partnerships and Coventry schools.

Ten schools from across the city have worked closely with carnival artists to research and design moving pieces of art that are being used in the Opening Ceremony, the Godiva Carnival and then as part of an interactive public art exhibition in the autumn.

Through this process, many of the children have also turned their hands to ‘making’ through making backpacks and costumes during school camps, as well as performing, with many of the participants performing in The Spirit of Coventry during the opening ceremony.The creative process will be filmed and documented to provide a lasting legacy and resource for schools interested in developing young people as curators and producers of public art.

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