Dancers in lighted suits performed a synchronized dance on the slope that led to the Olympic flameGETTY IMAGES
The Pyeongchang Games Closing Ceremony last night was the "artistic embodiment of everything South Korea attempted to do in hosting" the Games, according to Amy Donaldson of the DESERET NEWS. It began with a "magnanimous gesture to a bitter enemy, and ended with a farewell show so optimistic it made the sight of the IOC president creating a heart with his hands alongside volunteers and athletes seem genuine." The ceremony -- titled “The Next Wave” -- began with a piece that "melded an electric guitar with a geomungo, a traditional Korean string instrument." While the music played, dancers "decked out in lighted suits performed a stunningly entertaining synchronized dance on the slope that led to the Olympic flame." At the same time on center stage, other dancers "performed the traditional 'Spring Dance of Nightingale.'" There were "fireworks, and a massive electric prayer pagoda that dropped from above the stage in a stunning moment that caused an audible gasp from the audience" (DESERET NEWS, 2/26). In L.A., David Wharton notes the ceremony featured a "modern theme as glowing figures skated circles across an Olympic Stadium floor that pulsated with colored lights." Later, the K-pop boy band EXO performed, "chrome-plated all-terrain vehicles careening around them." A fleet of 300 "twinkling drones hovered like night stars in the shape of a white tiger overhead and dancers whirled around a giant snow globe." When the athletes arrived, North and South Koreans "once again walked together while Ivanka Trump watched from the dignitaries' box above, sitting near a delegation from the North" (L.A. TIMES, 2/26). In Chicago, Phil Rosenthal writes the ceremony "had everything." There was "some kid jamming out on the guitar while acrobatic dancers from the movie 'Tron' danced." Also, a "giant turtle from the opening ceremony returned to the sea, escorted to the water by people carrying giant stalks with dandelion seeds" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/26).
MISSED OPPORTUNITY: VARIETY's Patrick Frater wrote the ceremony "missed an opportunity to put right some of the wrongs" of the Sochi Games, when "dozens of Russians were awarded medals but were subsequently stripped of them for doping." The rightful winners "were not acknowledged" at the Pyeongchang Closing Ceremony (VARIETY.com, 2/25).
