Tristan Ihne of Ballet Lorraine has been dancing professionally for nearly twenty years. But on July 26, he performed a performance unlike any other: along with about 200 other dancers, in an eight-minute piece by Maud Le Pladec, He danced on a golden platform filled with water next to the Seine.
“The best part for me is feeling the energy of the team,” he said. “Here we are with different generations and different training styles. It’s fantastic. He has never been in such a big show or danced for such a large global audience. “There is nothing like it. Compared to that,” he said.
This collective energy resulted not only in unforgettable spectacles, but also in a different French tradition: the French performing artists union SFA-CGT threatened a strike. When the dancers began rehearsing together a few days before the ceremony, they realized that the fees they received for the broadcast rights varied widely – ranging from 60 euros to 1,600 euros. The protesting dancers also demanded payment of transportation and accommodation fees. “The collective agreement stipulates that if you hire people from more than 40 kilometers away, their costs should be compensated,” said Ine, who took part in the protest. Eventually, event organizers met some of the demands and the dancers dropped their threat to strike.
Dancer Magali Brito, a member of the aerial dance group Compagnie Retouramont, performed during a ceremony on the scaffolding of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, alongside a beheaded Marie Antoinette costume heavy metal band Gojira. “I would have liked a strike against the rights of many people in Paris whose rights have been completely distorted,” she said, highlighting the thousands of people without permanent housing who were evicted from Paris ahead of the Olympics.
Still, she was happy to attend the ceremony — even if not everything went according to plan. For example, Brito said she and other dancers from Retouramont were supposed to be hung from the walls of the building during Godzilla concerts. “But they didn’t allow us to hang it on the wall because of security issues, so we just did some poses in the window in costume,” she said.
There was also a notoriously heavy rain during the ceremony, which caused major problems for the Moulin Rouge dancers, especially those who performed on the slippery surface of the river. “For us, it doesn’t matter because we have to perform in the water anyway,” Ine said. “But for other dancers, it makes it more difficult – I give them more credit.”
Brito said that for her and many dancers, participating in a ceremony that makes such a statement is worth any additional challenge. “From a political perspective, it’s very important to be able to participate in this event,” she said. “In France we just had new elections and it feels good to be part of an event that showcases people of all colours, all body types and all genders.”
