The Opening Ceremony of the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto marked a historic moment as Cirque du Soleil presented its first-ever stadium-scale performance for a major international sporting event. Held at the Rogers Centre in front of 45,000 spectators and broadcast to over 30 million viewers across the Americas, the two-and-a-half-hour live spectacle paid tribute to the 41 participating nations and their athletes. Developed by 45 DEGREES (Cirque du Soleil’s events and special projects division), the show told an idealistic story of resilience, dreams, and unity—celebrating the diverse people who shape the city of Toronto and the spirit of the Pan Am Games. The production brought together over 600 performers from 25 nationalities, supported by hundreds of volunteers, and featured original music, custom-made costumes, and meticulous choreography developed over 22 weeks of rehearsals.

As part of the creative team, I was brought on board by Bastien and Jean Guilbert following collaborations on Cirque events in Andorra and Hong Kong. This project was their most ambitious to date, particularly in terms of projection design. Our team at Mindroots studio was working with 5 massive screens to create cutting-edge visual content, we used ultra slow-motion Phantom cameras to capture our acrobats in ethereal, godlike motion—transforming athletic performance into mythic imagery. These sequences were further enhanced with bespoke animations and thematical segments that punctuated the ceremony with moments of poetic grandeur. It was a rare opportunity to merge cinematic artistry with live performance on a monumental scale.

Responsible for conceptualizing and creating the narrative content for the video projections during the live event & TV broadcast. Working collaboratively with the Cirque du Soleil director and the main conceptors of the events.