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Canada's secret role in the 2014 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony

Canada’s presence at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi won’t be limited to the rinks and hills. Before the games even begin, Quebec’s world-famous circus arts community will be on display as part of the Opening Ceremony gala on Friday evening.

Sébastien Soldevila , the co-founder of Les 7 Doigts de la Main, a troupe with previous Olympic experience, will mount a 10-minute performance immediately after the athletes’ entrance into the Fisht Olympic Stadium, according to a report in La Presse. The scene is part of a 35-minute theatre and dance production that will also include American and Russian segments.

The 7 Doigts production has been 18 months in the making, including secret rehearsals at a hangar in Montreal beginning last summer. The scene will include almost 500 participants, including 30 circus artists, 50 gymnasts, and, if the influence of famed puppeteer Michael Curry is any indication, marionettes. In all, La Presse said over 1000 people have worked on the scene since its inception.

While the specifics of the production are a highly-guarded secret, La Presse says we can expect a general theme that incorporates great moments in Russia’s history, focusing on nature, culture and scientific advances.

The scene will incorporate 500 Russian volunteers, which Soldevila said was imperative in the production.

“It’s in the Olympic spirit to have participants from the host country in the Opening Ceremony,” he said.
“They’ll interpret the heart of the spectacle in dance. The goal is to give people a chance to participate in ceremony in their own country.”

The one thing you wont see, though, is a specific circus number. The reason, Soldevila says, is simple: nobody would be able to see it.

“A circus act, if its not performed by 200 people, is absolutely not visible in a stadium,” he said.
Despite Russia’s proud dance history, the Opening Ceremony are being produced by Five Currents, a San Francisco-based production firm that produced the London 2012 Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Five Currents also produced the creative behind Rio’s successful 2016 Olympic bid, and was involved in productions in Vancouver in 2010 and Salt Lake City in 2002.

Les 7 Doigts also appeared during the Closing Ceremony of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. In Vancouver in 2010, the group staged 160 performances at Quebec House, and performed at the medal ceremony for freestyle skiing.