SINGAPORE - Performers and athletes involved in the opening ceremony of the Asean Para Games (APG), due to kick off on Thursday, went through a final full-dress rehearsal on Monday evening at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
The final run-through was performed to an audience that included sponsors, volunteers, Team Singapore athletes, performers and their family and friends.
The opening ceremony of the Dec 3-9 APG is a 90-minute show across five movements. For the first time at the biennial APG, the opening will be broadcast live and include live interpretation (sign language) and live captioning.
The show incorporates performers from mainstream schools like Anglo-Chinese Junior College as well as special education schools like Tanglin school and Katong School. In all, more than 170 volunteers, 120 crowd motivators, 454 students from 15 special education schools and 661 performers are involved.
Creative director Philip Tan said that rather than go for people who were "ready to perform", the creative team did it "the hard way". Working with people of different abilities, however, has been a rewarding process.
"Some dance steps that are just 15 seconds long can take a month for some of our performers to master. It took a lot of time, a lot of patience, but it's been a fulfilling journey."
About 3,000 athletes and officials from 10 South-east Asian nations will be at the APG. Singapore is fielding a 157-strong contingent across all 15 sports.