Come celebrate the Olympic Flame in Toronto
The program for Toronto’s Community Celebration welcoming the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Torch Relay to Toronto was announced today. Toronto will host the Olympic Flame from December 17 to 19.
Toronto’s Community Celebration will be held on December 17 at Nathan Phillips Square, 100 Queen St. W., at 6 p.m., with the pre-show beginning at 5:30 p.m. The night promises to be memorable, showcasing performances by local, national and international dancers, musicians and acrobats. The show will appeal to all ages. The Olympic Flame will arrive at the square at 7 p.m. Toronto’s Final Torchbearer, Olympic medal winner Vicky Sunohara, will light the cauldron.
The headline act will be Toronto singer and songwriter Suzie McNeil, who will perform songs from her latest record, including “Believe.” The rest of the show will feature world champion hoop dancer Lisa Odjig, the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, an Extreme Trampoline snowboard and ski show, and an acrobatic performance by Suspended Animation Circus, that will take place high above the crowd.
A highlight of the show will be “Convergence,” a dance performance commissioned by the City of Toronto. Choreographed by Alejandro Ronceria and with music directed by Rick Lazar, the production will involve 44 performers who will incorporate live music and dance inspired by customs of welcome from Asia, Africa, Europe, Oceania and the Americas. Dance companies include the Collective of Black Artists (COBA), Sampradaya Dance Creations, Esmeralda Enrique Spanish Dance Co. and Kahurangi Maori Dance Theatre. The solo artists are Spirit Synott and Lisa Odjig. Music will be performed by Raging Asian Women and Samba Squad.
The night will conclude with an amazing fireworks display by internationally acclaimed local pyrotechnics company Circus Orange.
The Community Celebration at Nathan Phillips Square is not the only special event to be held while the Flame is in town. On December 17, as it makes its way to Nathan Phillips Square, the Olympic Flame will stop at Albert Campbell Square at the Scarborough Civic Centre, 150 Borough Drive, at about 3 p.m. Beginning at 1 p.m., the City will be offering entertainment and interactive sporting activities, including buskers, musicians, a sledge hockey demonstration and much more.
A detailed program and biographies of the performers for the Community Celebration at Nathan Phillips Square and the Scarborough Civic Centre can be found at http://www.toronto.ca/mie/olympictorchrelay.
Torontonians are encouraged to attend the Community Celebration at Nathan Phillips Square and the Scarborough Civic Centre event on December 17, as well as to come out along the route to cheer the 1,000 torchbearers who will carry the Olympic Flame through city streets.
The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Torch Relay, presented by Coca-Cola and RBC and supported by the Government of Canada, will make its historic 45,000-kilometre journey across Canada from coast to coast to coast, ending in Vancouver with the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron on February 12, 2010.