Mass Choreography by Penny Jones - All Africa Games Ceremonies 1999

www.show.co.za - Penny Jones is a BA Fine Arts graduate from the University of Cape Town and an international expert in stadium theatre and mass display choreography and logistics.Penny studied the art of Mass Display and Stadium Theatre under the late Dr Kay Crawford and Ms Judy Chabola, who is widely regarded as the "Mother of Stadium Theatre". She further honed her skills under the dynamic example of Ric Burch, David Atkins, Don Mischer, David Goldberg, Kenny Ortega, Peter Minshall and Doug Jack.
Ms Jones has since worked on over 100 TV adverts, productions and shows and produced, co-produced, staged, worked on, conducted performance audits or officially observed the following opening and closing ceremonies:
2008 - Staging and Mass Display Director on the Opening Ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations in Accra, Ghana
2008 - Stadium Theatre Consultant for the Opening Ceremony of the Africa Cup of Nations in Accra, Ghana
2007 - Auditor on the 2006 Asian Games, Performance Audit Team in Doha, Qatar
2006 - Co-produced 11 shows in Germany as part of the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup hand-over to South Africa
2006 - Accredited international observer of the preparations and staging of Turino Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony
2003 - Executive Producer of the ICC Cricket World Cup Opening Ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa
2002 - Accredited international observer of the preparations and staging of the Manchester Commonwealth Games ceremonies
2002 - Accredited international observer of the preparations and staging of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics Opening ceremony
2000 - Mass display choreographer on the Sydney Olympics Opening & Closing ceremonies
1999 - Staged the mass displays for South Africa's 2006 World Cup Soccer logo launch
1999 - Produced the mass displays for the All Africa Games Opening & Closing ceremonies
1997 & 1998 - Staged mass displays for sporting events and TV show in South Africa
1996 - Co-ordinated the ceremonies for South Africa's 2004 Olympic Bid
1996 - Accredited international observer of the preparations and staging of Atlanta Olympics Opening Ceremony

[@snubblebunny]

I am desperate to find the theme song from this 1999 games. The opening ceremony was the most important and magical moment of my childhood. The song was by PJ Powers and Nana Coyote and Lucky Dube and I believe some others (what a huge lineup) and was called ‘Africa Is Gathering’, sang by a little boy. I cannot find footage of the opening ceremony or information on the evenings programme anywhere at all. Do you happen to have it or at least remember it? It’s like the opening ceremony didn’t exist apart from this video and some archived websites from the web that week.