(ATR) The artistic director of the Athens 2004 Olympics ceremonies has been contracted to do the European Games opening ceremony.
Baku 2015 organisers appointed Dimitris Papaioannou to the role. US production company FiveCurrents has been contracted to produce the opening and closing ceremonies.
Billed as an "artist, choreographer, performer and visionary", Papaioannou is responsible for creating a ceremony celebrating the best of Azerbaijani culture as well as honoring the athletes who will be competing.
Papaioannou received the Golden Cross of the Order of Honor from the president of Greece for outstanding artistic achievement following his work at the Athens Games. He has since created several ground-breaking shows that have been performed all over the world to a combined audience of hundreds of thousands.
He said his appointment was "an honor and a challenge".
"My aim is to tell a universal human story using elemental Azerbaijani ingredients in a way that is contemporary, inventive and playful, but always respectful of the culture's enormous richness and depth."
FiveCurrents, headed by Scott Givens and Mark Poncher, produced the Sochi 2014 Olympics ceremonies. The company’s other credits include the Rio 2007 and Guadalajara 2011 Pan American Games’ ceremonies.
Baku 2015 CEO Azad Rahimov said the ceremonies for the inaugural European Games were "an opportunity to showcase Baku and Azerbaijan to the world".
"I am confident the team we have in place will help us deliver spectacular events that all of Azerbaijan will be proud of," he added.
On Friday, Baku 2015 also launched the application process for the opening and closing ceremonies volunteer performer program. A cast of 6,000 performers will be needed. Auditions will begin in November.
Baku 2015’s opening ceremony will be held in the new 68,000-capacity national stadium on June 12.
More than 6,000 athletes will compete in 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports over 17 days of competition. The Games’ closing ceremony is on June 28.
Reported by Mark Bisson.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
