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here where he would create and innovate all kind of   The Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote the Opening
            techniques. Over the years, they started to be deployed   Ceremony was “designed as a three part-harmony
            whether it was in concerts or in Salt Lake. Things   celebrating the world’s youth, the South, and the 100th
            started popping up for him. He was on the radar.”   anniversary of the modern Games.”

            In Barcelona, Minshall was part of a bigger team. Antoni   The youthful verve was evident in the opening segment,
            Miralda, a famed Spanish artist who created big     Call To Nations, which featured performers dressed in
            installations and large scale media events, admired   bouncing, circular shapes like those of Minshall’s mas
            Minshall’s work for a long time and used the opportunity   band Callaloo. The colours red, green, blue, yellow, and
            to outsource him for the Olympic production. For    black representing those of the Olympic flag.
            Barcelona, experiments and prototypes were done at
            the Callaloo workshop in Chaguaramas and then       Fast forward to the presentation of the flags by the US
            shipped to Spain where the final costumes were       armed forces and R&B legend Gladys Knight, with
            eventually manufactured.                            Summertime: The Beauty of the South taking centrestage
                                                                at the 37-minute mark.
            Don Mischer, producer for the Olympic opening and
            closing ceremonies for Atlanta 1996, was keen on    The piece opens with a quote from the author Zora Neale
            Minshall after seeing his work in Barcelona. He selected   Hurston on summertime to lay the concept of the
            him for the Atlanta Games, which marked the         characteristic Southern landscape, then former Carnival
            Centennial anniversary of the Olympics.             Queen Alyson Browne enters as the Spirit of the South,
                                                                with elaborate white wings and bele skirt as she dances
            The Atlanta presentation carried more work as Minshall   among blue butterflies.
            was made not only the designer but co-artistic director
            for both the opening and closing shows with Michael   More than 60 puppets in the style of Tan Tan and Saga
            Jackson choreographer Kenny Ortega.                 Boy puppets dance along a river of Southern culture as
                                                                ladies and gentlemen of the ball, square dancers, and jazz
            “This was obviously bigger. It was a one off. We had to   players. Suddenly, the massive Thunderbird enters and
            wow the world,” Manwarren said.                     scatters everything before it.












































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