Dynamic Motion conceptualised, organised and executed the full opening ceremony of the 2015 4th FAI World Air Games (WAG) in collaboration with established and credible players in the event industry. It was an extremely high profile event that heralded the start of an exciting week of aerial action.
Hosting the event in Dubai was also a major coup for the Emirates, and the concept for the opening event was to combine both a sense of anticipation with an opportunity to showcase the history of the UAE from the perspective of its involvement with airborne sports and activities.
Held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Sports Council, we wanted to connect his personal advocacy of aerial sports with the event. His Highness has been instrumental in engaging the interest of local youth and turning dreams into a reality by providing opportunities to watch, try and pursue these types of activity.
We took a very theatrical approach to developing the overall concept, with the aim of creating a memorable experience for the participants as well as the public and other stakeholders.
The underlying theme and inspiration was the childhood dream of flying, and that emotive feeling of being able to spread our arms and soar into the air. To bring this to life, we built a story around a child with that dream; one who grew up to become a WAG participant.
To support the theme, we also interwove the cultural history of the UAE and the relevance of Dubai as a destination with a strong aviation and aerial sports link. We also expanded the childhood and UAE link by adding 11 children from around the Emirates (representing the 11 WAG disciplines) as major components of the story.
One of the key elements that we used to tell the story was the ‘sphere’. This represents the child’s dream and our story started with the hero inside his sphere or dream bubble. As the story unfolded, he was able to move outside of the sphere and explore the world from the air.
Dynamic Motion also commissioned an original music score for the event, based on the existing WAG soundtrack. A total of 8 aerial performers and 22 stage performers took part, with over 300 behind-the-scenes support staff.
To involve the audience, we distributed 5,000 LED bracelets with the UAE flag colours, and the special effects programme included water fountains, light designs, hi-tech aerial artists plus 3D flight elements such as drones and remote-controlled helicopters.
To reinforce the link with the UAE’s cultural heritage, we created a visually impactful scene that featured a souk/Bastakiya theme, with 200 people cast as Emiratis, and incorporating a large-scale 3D mechanical props representing an old souq background.
We had two major challenges to overcome for this event. The first was that the grandstand space allocated for the 4,500 expected spectators was not large enough and so we had to re-engineer the shape of the stage as well as the seating arena to offer the best viewing experience from all angle.
The second was the installation of the surprise element of the ‘sphere’. We had to inflate it to 70% in order to fit it beneath the stage and then inflate the remaining 30% while it was ascending; this meant that timing was absolutely critical.
The event was a full house success with more than 4,500 attendees including 230 VIPs. HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum attended the event, as well as several officials, and regional and international media who labeled the event as ‘unforgettable’ and ‘impressive’.
PRODUCED BY DYNAMIC MOTION LLC
Creative Team
- Creative Director : Elie Abou Rizk
- Artistic Director: Ghazy Feghaly
- Stage Director: Sabine Soueidy
- Artistic Coordinator: Nadine Mezher
- Production Coordinator: Doryn Gajo
- Video Content / Programmer: Daria Bertinelli
- Technical Director: Stefan Weiland
- Sound designer: Delta Sound
- Lighting Director: Ivan Pieri
- Acrobatic designer: Björn Hanefeld
VIDEO:
- 4 Black Trax Luminex GigaSwitch 16RFO
- 2 Black Trax Neutix OpticalCON Duo xtreme 300m – L
- 2 Black Trax Neutix OpticalCON Duo xtreme 300m – L
- 10 Barco HDF W30 FLEX
- 2 Barco TLD + lens
- 1 Neutix OpticalCON Duo xtreme 150m – V
- 16 Christie Lens
LIGHTS
- 30 Clay Paky Mythos
- 100 Sharpy
- 30 Super Sharpy
- 60 Robe Robin 600
- 90 Martin Max Aura
- 60 LED City Color 48 x 10 W RGBW
- 100 LED Par
- 60 Profiles S4 Zoom
- 90 Blinder 4 Lite
- 6 Xenon Follow Spot
SOUND:
- 12 L'Acoustics SB218 Subwoofer
- 24 L'Acoustics V-Dosc Loudspeaker 24
- 22 L'Acoustics DV-Dosc Loudspeaker 22
- 2 L'Acoustics V-Dosc Chariot 2
FOUNTAIN:
- 2 x pools approx. 25m x 7.5m, curved shape
- 12 x Crystaline jet straight 0-20m high 25mm
- 12 x Crystaline jet straight 0-14m high 16mm
- 12 x foam jet straight 0-8m high 50mm
FIREWORKS:
- Custom choreographed pyrotechnics display digitally synchronized with music for 2min.
- 21 firing positions of stage mines, comets, and short-duration gerbs on the arch,
- 3 firing positions of close-proximity pyrotechnics on scaffolding towers (4m x 4m).
- Total number of shots – 1,959