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Segments

From Wikipedia

Prelude
Hosted by Channel Seven's newsreader Chris Bath, while seven months pregnant with her first child, live on stage in the stadium. Featured various performances, including "Waltzing Matilda" with John Williamson.

Welcome
The Opening Ceremony began with a tribute to the heritage of the Australian Stock Horse, with the arrival of a lone rider, Steve Jefferys, whose Australian Stock Horse, Ammo, reared. Steve Jefferys then cracked his stockwhip and a further 120 riders and their Stock Horses entered the Stadium and performed intricate steps, including forming the five Olympic Rings, to the music of Bruce Rowland who composed a special Olympics version of the main theme which he had composed for the 1982 film The Man from Snowy River. A giant banner, painted by Sydney artist Ken Done, said "G'Day" to the world.

Anthem
The Australian National Anthem, Advance Australia Fair, was sung by both Human Nature and Julie Anthony. The performance is still regarded by many worldwide as the greatest rendition of a National Anthem at any Olympic Ceremony.

Deep Sea Dreaming
This segment celebrates Australia's affinity with the sea with the stadium floor being turned into a beach setting. Nikki Webster arrives in beachwear and basks in the light. She seemed to fall asleep on the beach and drifts off into a dream. The performers represented the sea and the various aquatic fauna appear and move around the arena floor. Nikki Webster was then hoisted up in the air by over head wires and swam with the sea creatures. Other swimmers were also present, being coached (on a large screen) by Australian swimming coach Laurie Lawrence. Elena Kats-Chernin composed the music for this section which was performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Children's Choir.

Awakening
This segment commemorated Australia's Aboriginal past, which dates back thousands of years. A special welcome was made to countries competing at the Games. An Aboriginal elder, Djakapurra Munyarryun, guided Nikki Webster through the segment. Narration for the segment was by Australian Indigenous actor Ernie Dingo.

Nature
This segment show cases the Australian outback, wildlife and flora. It begins with various fire preformers (jugglers, fire-breathers) moving across the stadium floor, symbolising the advance of a bushfire. In the aftermath, performers representing the flora stir and, as the land is replenished with water and life, the stadium floor is filled with performers dressed in costumes representing various flowers — Australia's distinctive wild flowers such as the Golden Wattle (Australia's national flower), the Waratah (State flower of N.S.W), the Sturt's Desert Pea, Water Lilies and Eucalypt flowers among others are represented by performers. The fauna, which are represented by 7 huge paintings by Jeffrey Sammuels, are then revealed, depicting the indigenous animal life in Australia. The dream-like music heard during this sequence was composed and conducted by Australian composer, Chong Lim. The flowers once more are illuminated before moving out of the stadium.

Tin Symphony
This segment show cases the European settlement in Australia, and the development of Australia into a rural and civic country. The segment begins with the arrival of Captain James Cook and crew, with bicycles to represent his ship, HM Bark Endeavour, during Captain Cook's exploration of the Australian east coast. The performer acting as Captain Cook lights a fire work to start the segment. A caged fake rabbit is also shown aboard the ship. Then a multitude of performers dress as the iconic Australian bushranger Ned Kelly (with costumes based on a painting of Ned Kelly by artist Sir Sidney Nolan) come onto the stadium floor, with other symbolic items of the outback such as corrugated iron and storm water tanks present. A mechanical horse-like vehical is also present, it changes into a wind mill. Cultural items such as woodcutting and whip cracking are also showcased. Tap dancers are also present in this section, dancing on the corrugated iron sheets, with umbrellas made up to look like giant cogs and wheels to represent the industrial growth of Australia. The tempo changes as Australia's rural aspects are introduced. In the middle of the stadium floor, a shed is constructed from the corrugated iron sheets. Out of the shed comes a unique representation of sheeps, an important livestock. The sheep are represented by performers in cardboard boxes, that move along with the music. Australian suburbia is then represented as the performers emerge from the cardboard boxes with lawn mowers to form the Olympics Rings. The giant mechanical horse then makes another appearance, before Nikki Webster, gives an apple to it. The mechanical horse neighs to signify the end of the segment.

Arrivals
The Arrivals segment of the ceremony celebrated Australia's multiculturalism aspects introducing each continent with a float and costumes symbolising each continent. The segment starts with the African continent and its representatives, dancing into the stadium wearing Black costumes. Then a splash of Yellow entails the arrival of the Asian immigrants into Australia, lead by two yellow Chinese Lion dancers. Europe is introduced by the colour Green, and further adds to the growing party on the stadium floor. Then another change of music and a splash of Red symbolising the arrival of people from the Americas. Finally, the people from the various Pacific Islands, with an emphasis on New Zealand come into the stadium in vivid Blue costumes. The five floats all manoeuver into positions to represent their respective coloured rings. By the crescendo of the segment, four of the floats (Asia, America, Europe and the Pacific Islands) surround the African float as the performers from all the represented continents rush out from the middle to form the Australia continent. The performers stand with arms outreached towards the audience, forming the coast line of Australia and thus symbolising Australia's welcoming arms to people from all over the world. Then many children dressed in the Olympic colours flood into the arena and form a solid shape of Australia, as the performers from the previous sequence leave the performance floor. Nikki Webster then performs the song Under Southern Skies with 5 people representing each continent standing with her, as the children form a large reprentation of the Southern Cross constellation with their lanterns.

A New Era and Eternity
In the middle of the stadium floor, on the central float stands Adam Garcia, who starts off tap dancing, inviting more performers onto the stadium. More dancers file into the stands where the audience are sitting and also join in with tap dancing. Several cherry picker cranes are also in the centre with the floats and start to slowly rise up with the crescendo of the music. The dancers symbolise the workers building a new Australia for the future. Then all the dancers in the stand rush out onto the stadium floor to join their fellow dancers. Some of the dancers hold square sheets of steel, that they both dance on and also hold in their hands to also reflect light out as they dance. By the finale of this segment, large steel frames rise from each float to form a tall structure. In the middle are Nikki Webster and the aboriginal elder, who look wonderously out into the audience, surveying the workers. Then as the close of the presentation comes nearer, the performers from the other segments all come out and join in with the dancers already dancing. A large representation of the Sydney Harbour Bridge composed of sparklers is set off in the middle of the stadium with the word "Eternity" shown in the middle of the bridge.

Sydney 2000 Olympic Band
A massed Millennium Marching Band of 2000 musicians performed both Australian and international classics. The band consisited of 1000 Australian musicians, with the remaining 1000 musicians being from other countries around the world. The massed band was so large that six conductors were required for the segment. The band members wore Driza-Bone riding coats which had been especially modified for the band members. The band was the only live sound creator of the night; all other sounds, including the tap dancers' taps, were pre-recorded.

Parade of Nations
Once the Sydney 2000 Olympic Band made their grand introduction, the Parade of Nations began. A record 199 nations entered the stadium, the only missing IOC member being Afghanistan (which was suspended due to the Taliban regime's prohibition against practicing any kind of sports). Most remarkable was the entering of North and South Korea as one team, using a specially designed unification flag: a white background flag with a blue map of the Korea peninsula; the two teams would compete separately, however. Four athletes from East Timor also marched in the parade of nations. Although the country-to-be had no National Olympic Committee then, they were allowed to compete under the Olympic Flag.

Dare To Dream
John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John walked among the Olympic competitors and sang the song Dare to Dream, which was especially written for the occasion.

Opening Addresses
President of Sydney 2000 (SOCOG) - Michael Knight. President of the International Olympic Committee - Juan Antonio Samaranch The Governor-General, Sir William Deane, opened the games. This was the first occasion that a Summer Olympics held in a Commonwealth nation was not opened by the monarch or member of the Royal Family. It became the first Olympics since Melbourne in 1956 not to be opened by the head of state.

The Olympic Flag
The Olympic Flag was carried around the arena by eight former Australian Olympic champions: Bill Roycroft, Murray Rose, Liane Tooth, Gillian Rolton, Marjorie Jackson, Lorraine Crapp, Michael Wenden and Nick Green. During the raising of the Olympics Flag, the Olympic Hymn was sung by the Millennium Choir of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia.

Cauldron
The opening ceremony concluded with the lighting of the Olympic Flame. Former Australian Olympic champion Herb Elliott brought the Olympic Flame into the stadium. Then, celebrating 100 years of women's participation in the Olympic Games, former Australian women Olympic champions: Betty Cuthbert and Raelene Boyle, Dawn Fraser, Shirley Strickland (later Shirley Strickland de la Hunty), Shane Gould and Debbie Flintoff-King brought the torch through the stadium, handing it over to Cathy Freeman. Cathy Freeman then climbed a long set of stairs towards a circular pond. She then walks into the middle of the water and ignites the cauldron beneath her feet in a circle of fire. The planned spectacular climax to the ceremony was delayed by the technical glitch of a computer switch which malfunctioned, causing the sequence to shut down by giving a false reading. This meant that the Olympic flame was suspended in mid-air for about four minutes, rather than immediately rising up a water-covered ramp to the top of the stadium. When it was discovered what the problem was, the program was overridden and the cauldron continued its course, and the ceremony concluded with a spectacular fireworks display.

Pictures

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Videos

Nikki's Quotes

“I couldn’t see anyone in the crowd while I was swimming, and just concentrated on pretending I was at the beach and in the ocean to make people believe the story. The Deep Sea section of the ceremony was my favourite because I love going to the beach. It was amazing to be up there, 25m off the ground, and so much fun. Even in my first audition I wasn’t scared when they lifted us up to test our nerves, then took us up a bit higher into the stadium.” (2000)

“It was a great honour to be part of the ceremony and perform in the stadium, and also to meet some of my idols like John Farnham and Olivia Newton-John.” (2000)

"The biggest buzz is when I fly up. The audience has no idea because it has been such a big secret." (2000)

"I was so excited to get out there, I mean it had been months and months of auditions and preparations for the whole team, you know David Atkins and Ric Birch and everyone, and I was just praying that it wasn't too windy, 'cause I wasn't gonna be able to fly if it was too windy." (2004)

"I was actually chosen, it's a bit scary to say it now, but just at the beginning of September. Yeah, a couple of weeks before! So obviously my first audition was in March and then it was an 'elimination process' I suppose you'd call it, just of flying and singing and dancing, but we never knew to the full extent of the actual role." (2004)

"It'd been - for everyone, even backstage and that - we'd all worked together for so long that it was really like another rehearsal for us, you know we just got out there, we were so prepared, and just got out there and strutted our stuff I suppose." (2004)

"The day went so fast. It just flew by. So I just kind of took each step as it came, and David came and spoke to me before and said good luck and everything, and then it was 'Go, go, go!' and I was walking out into the middle of the field." (2004)

"It was pretty well set in stone. I think all the extras had been working for about four years on the whole thing but I'd only been working for a couple of weeks. So it was kind of me just fitting into place." (2004)

"I got the call with the Games just weeks away. There was no time to be nervous. I had to learn all the songs, and how to fly. I wasn't terrified, not even when I was being hoisted into the sky, just excited." (2006)

“I didn’t have to keep it a secret from my parents but I kind of decided I would just so it would be, you know, an experience for them as much as it was for the rest of the world, and I didn’t tell them. All they knew was that I was flying, because of health and safety. They had no idea! They were telling my grandparents to watch and they were like, ‘Are we gonna see her or is she just gonna be running ‘round like all the other kids?’ So I did keep it a secret for everyone but it was great because they got to experience it firsthand like everyone else.” (2006)

“I feel blessed to still have that support, and that people still remember me from the Olympics. I never want to discard that or say I don’t want to be known as that little girl, because that was the beginning for me and a lot of people.” (2007)

“It was fifteen days before the Olympics and my parents had booked a trip for our whole family to actually leave Sydney, and go to Singapore, to get out 'cause we live quite close the the stadium and we thought, 'It's gonna be really busy!' So we were packing up and leaving and my mum kinda said to David Atkins, ‘You either tell us today or we’re going on our holiday,’ cause we can’t get a refund! So he kinda sat us down in a little office after the rehearsal and um, said, ‘And Nikki, you’ve got the role.’ And I kinda just went blank, I was like, ‘Okay.’” (2009)

“I guess that [the opening ceremony] was such a proud moment for our country as a whole and I’m happy… to be put in, you know side-by-side with that is absolutely amazing. It’s something that’s always gonna be with me and I’m happy for it to be mentioned all the time, absolutely!” (2010)

“The only time I got nervous was right at the beginning where I had to walk out and I had to hit centre mark right in the middle of the stadium, and there was no markings on the floor so basically it was done by feel and rehearsals of where I’d found centre, ‘cause if I didn’t hit the centre spot I couldn’t have flown, ‘cause the cables couldn’t come down. That was the only thing I was nervous about. Once I hit centre I was like, ‘This is easy! This is great!’ and I didn’t even think about people watching.” (2010)

“I think that was a great thing that David Atkins and Ric Birch did with me, they didn’t really put the pressure on that so many people would be watching. They just said, ‘Go out, make us proud,’ you know, ‘There’s everybody in the stadium.’ They forgot to tell me that it was being filmed for the world.” (2010)

Books

Official Souvenir Book

Sydney 2000 Official Souvenir Book

The Olympic City
Words: John Hamilton

It began with an unknown, tiny 13-year-old girl dabbing zinc cream on her nose, spreading a beach towel in front of 112, 524 people and launching a dream that lasted for 17 extraordinary days. A few minutes into the dream and every parent's heart froze. The tiny girl in pink was breaststroking high above Stadium Australia, high above a vast undersea world of giant jellyfish, sea monsters and Great Barrier Reef tropical fish. The little girl had been holding the hand of an Aboriginal dancer. He was leading her into the Dreamtime, then exploring the history of the nation. The music of chanting Central Desert women and the throbbing of Torres Strait kundu drums. Visions of bushfires and wildflowers, Ned Kellys and water tanks, fire belching windmills, tap dancing country folk and new arrivals pouring in from many nations, uniting as one. Then the dream developed further, deeper. A slim woman, instantly recognisable, stood in a circle of fire.

Cathy Freeman, dressed in a bodysuit of silvery white, held a flaming torch aloft, a spirit of Australia surrounded by the elements of fire and water thundering behind her in a giant waterfall, signalling what was to come. A symbol of reconciliation, a country together at one purpose. She lit the cauldron. There was a quivering, heart-stopping moment. A small lurch and then it rose upwards as a celestial choir soared with it. The Games of the XXVII Olympiad had begun.

Like all dreams it soon became a kaleidoscope of disconnected images. And it became images of astonishing reality, of sharp clarity - the best athletes in the world performing and the world itself meeting together in Sydney - before fading into a dream again. The dream ended when the little girl, now famous and known to all the world as Nikki Webster, stood on a platform high above the Olympic stadium in the shadow of the giant cauldron where the flame was slowly dying. The wind was blowing strongly and her white robe floated behind her. She looked like a tiny fairy flying as she sang: "I can't believe the end has come with friendships just begun ... where nations joined to be a better world.

"So let's reach up to the stars..."

Opening Ceremony
Words: Miranda Devine

When Cathy Freeman walked on water to light Sydney's Olympic Cauldron it seemed the most fitting finale to an Opening Ceremony that was suffused with a haunting Aboriginal spirituality. The crowd roared its approval of a show that combined the thundering of hooves of 120 stockhorses, burning eucalyptus, tapdancers in work-boots, fire-breathing stiltwalkers and giant Ned Kelly's, along with a traditional smoke-filled Aboriginal cleansing ceremony of the stadium ground.

Apart from the popular Aboriginal sprinter, there were three stars of the night. One was Hero Girl, Nikki Webster, a tiny 13-year-old in a pink sundress who flew 30m above the stadium floor. Another was The Songman, Arnhem Land Aborigine Djakapurra Munyarryun, who drew 1000 Aboriginal dancers into the stadium to the sound of a heartbeat and didgeridoo. And there was the audience. The 110, 000 people packed into the Olympic Stadium were involved in the show like no other Olympic crowd before them. They waved yellow torches and glowing wristbands. People in the southern stand also helped stage one of the loveliest, and most risky, moments of the evening, by dragging an enormous white flag over their heads, down into the stadium. As the flag moved slowly down the stand, you could see the rippling of thousands of helping hands underneath, as images of athletes and a white dove of peace were projected on to it. But the crowd's biggest contribution was their strong lungs which were exercised with a collective "G'Day" to country singer John Williamson's Waltzing Matilda. When Williamson stopped singing and let the crowd carry the chorus, for a few spine-tingling moments, 110, 000 voices sang, word-perfect, the alternative national anthem.

And for a show of national pride, there was nothing louder than the roar that filled the stadium when the Australian Olympic team entered the ground, at the end of the parade of 11, 000 athletes from 199 nations. Fortunately, what was never heard was the sound of cringing from the audience. Director Ric Birch's fourth Olympic show was distinctively, assertively Australian, with corrugated iron and woodchopping, Akubras and Drizabones. There were no kangaroos or bikes but there were still plenty of in-jokes: Victa lawnmowers and, of course, the outdoor dunnies. The show began with a Man From Snowy River welcome by 120 stockhorses galloped in by riders, aged from 15 to 177, wearing Drizabones, moleskins and Akubras, carrying first Olympic flags, then Australian flags. Then, in the first of seven segments telling the story of Australia, Hero Girl, with her strawberry blonde ringlets, walked into the middle of the stadium and fell asleep on a giant beachtowel. Her dreams formed the opening sequence, Deep Sea Dreaming, in which giant diaphanous sea creatures, from pawns and stingrays to anemones, a barracouta, and even a wriggling green worm on a hook, floated around the stadium. Hero Girl flew high above the ground on near-invisible wires and started swimming in the air.

Suddenly, the atmosphere turned spooky as Awakening began, with the grey ghostly shapes of body-painted Arnhem Land dancers clustered in the midde of the stadium's vast brown dirt floor, and the haunting sound of the digeridoo. There was a colourful series of five floats with hundreds of singers and dancers representing the waves of migration which helped build the nation. Dancers wearing steel-soled workboots, and checked shirts, tap-dancing their way into the centre of the stadium, Tap-Dogs style. Fireworks formed the image of the Harbour Bridge, with the familiar looping word Eternity, just as it was on New Year's Eve. Then there was the stirring sound of the Marching Bands, the final act before the parade of nations. The suspense was palpable when Betty Cuthbert entered the stadium, the Olympic torch strapped to her wheelchair, pushed by Raelene Boyle. Who would light the couldron? When Cathy Freeman took the flame, it seemed so obvious.

For the 2.5 billion audience worldwide, the Opening Ceremony will have showcased an admirable Australian identity forged from the ancient spirituality of Aborigines and the resourceful optimism of the migrants who joined them in their stange brown land. For freshy patriotic Australians, it was like looking at yourself in the mirror and really liking what you see. ing and creative environment encouraging you child to reach their full potential and develop a love of dance and performance that can last a lifetime.

Master Of The Ceremonies

Master Of The Ceremonies: An Eventful Life

by Ric Birch

The initial idea for 'The Awakening' was a creation myth image of ochre-covered tribes crawling 'ashore' onto the main stage, where Djakapurra would act as a storyteller for the ceremony. Then, as Rhoda and Stephen started working with David Atkins, the segment developed a life of it's own. Their first idea was to have a vast brown cloth covering the performers, forming a landscape over which a single, small boy walked or climbed until he reached a particular outcrop. Then either Djakapurra would signal the boy, or the landscape itself would move around him. I told David that I didn't like using cloth as a prop - it always looks tacky and is difficult to handle - and besides, it didn't sound like a strong opening segment. A few days later David came back an said, 'We changed the boy to a little girl. Now there's no cloth. She's a young white girl and she's walking onto the beach and the whole ceremony is her dream.' And that's how Nikki Webster became a superstar.

***

David Atkins had taken responsibility for a couple of sequences that acted as transitions - one being the 'bushfire' that was to sweep through the arena after 'The Awakening', and another being the giant flag that was passed from the spectators to cover all the athletes before the arrival of the Olympic Torch. But undoubtedly, his most important single contribution was Nikki Webster and the way that she and Djakapurra linked the various segments of the ceremony. David had auditioned almost 200 'Hero Girls', but in the end only twelve young girls were brought to the stadium and given the chance to 'fly'. One chilly night a few months before opening, we saw Nikki and the others, strapped into their harnesses and flying above the arena for the first time. On their first test the girls were only lifted a few metres into the air, but Nikki was one of the ones who shrieked 'higher' as she flew across the field. In the end, we had a short list of four girls - our musical director Max Lambert worked with them on their vocals, the ceremonies photographer Kylie Smith photographed them so we could check their 'look' on camera, and David and I talked to the girls and their parents to evaluate how they'd handle the stress. In the end, Nikki was our unanimous choice, and it's now impossible to imagine anyone else in the role. Aged thirteen at the time of the Olympics, she epitomised young Australia - frank, friendly and fearless, an innocent on the edge of greatness. My daughter Jessie, seven years old at the time of the opening ceremony, spent at least a year wishing every day that she was Nikki Webster and has never forgiven me for not giving her the role.

Time of Our Lives

Time of Our Lives - Inside the Sydney Olympics

by Harry Gordon

Chapter Nine: The Big Secret

Moments to savour were abundant. The robust opening gallops of the stockhorses awoke memories of Light Horse charges, that man from Snowy River, the gallantry of Olympic riders like Bill Roycroft in Rome and Wendy Schaeffer in Atlanta, a procession of first Tuesdays in November, sun-squinting drovers, the rollicking verse of the bush baladeers. Nikki Webster, a remarkably talented and intrepid 13-year-old, soared 30 metres above the arena on a tracking wire, swimming, diving, drifting and somersaulting among exotic seahorses and giant jellyfish in a surreal ocean. This girl dominated the show, linking the seven creative degments in her role as Hero Girl, in company with her guide Djakapurra Munyarryun, the renowned tribal dancer who took the part of Songman.