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Miraculously, from it came Hellas!<br />
Forged, formed, fashioned by<br />
Some spark of brilliance,<br />
That spark became a flame<br />
Of custom, writing, speech<br />
Influencing the Western World<br />
And its ways.<br />
From whence did it all come<br />
600 Olympic feet, a simple prize,<br />
A kotinos, a victory, victor and vitrix,<br />
But only one.<br />
All gave cohesion under a striking sun<br />
An alphabet, a language, thinkers.<br />
A culture through this influence of unity:<br />
The Olympic Games.<br />
© John Talbot Powell. Written in Olympia.<br />
The next event was a performance by Mrs Hanley's dance troupe. The theme<br />
of the costumed dance was "Spirit of Olympia" or "To Penethma Tis Olimpias"<br />
(see dance report). The blue and white (for Greece) costumes were brought by<br />
Mrs Hanley from the United States specially to enhance this performance. There<br />
followed two guitar songs from Terry Risini (ITA) and Andrei Stepanov (URS).<br />
Terry has a very strong "blues" singing voice.<br />
Dr Powell then read his lovely poem "Olympia's Quietness", a personal favourite<br />
of mine and many others who know his works. After much applause for the<br />
doctor's rendering of the poem, Mrs Hanley's troupe performed again (dance report).<br />
Then under the violet sky with a full moon beaming the very talented Milada<br />
Baresova (TCH) played Handel's Violin Sonata in F Major part I, which was magical<br />
and lent a deep and poignant moment to the evening. I then projected a slide<br />
show entitled Barcelona Revisited which was my record of the Barcelona Olympic<br />
games set to the music Barcelona by the late Freddy Mercury.<br />
This was followed by Fabien Quesada-Gomez (ESP) and Majte Parejo (ESP)<br />
who performed on guitar accompanying a beautiful Spanish song (Basque). A<br />
third dance performance ensued followed by Martin Prat (TCH) and Milada performing<br />
two Czech folk songs followed by Milada's rendering of Handel's Violin<br />
Sonata in F Major part 2, delightful!<br />
I then presented the finale, the "Flame Event". All lights dimmed and I spoke<br />
into the microphone:<br />
"Tin floga ke ta matia sas,<br />
Tin floga ke ta matia mas!"<br />
(Take care of the flame as you do your eyes, we will take care of the flame as<br />
we do our eyes)<br />
The slowly, to the music Conquest of Paradise by the Greek contemporary<br />
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