12 June 2014 is a day that the world’s football fans have been waiting expectantly for ever since the last FIFA World Cup™ came to an end. It is the day that Brazil 2014 will finally get under way. While the 32 national teams participating in the competition and the 12 Host Cities put the finishing touches to their preparations, more than 600 dancers are rehearsing hard to stage a show that will delight and captivate the watching world at the tournament’s Opening Ceremony. Kicking off at 15:15 in exactly 30 days time, the ceremony will showcase the diversity and beauty of Brazil and set the scene for the Opening Match between the host nation and Croatia at 17:00. “The Opening Ceremony is a tribute to Brazil and its treasures: nature, people football,” said the show’s Belgian artistic director Daphne Cornez, after overseeing another of the many rehearsals that will take place this month. “The sense of excitement here is amazing and everyone is very motivated. It doesn’t matter whether they’re feeling tired or hot sometimes or if they have to go through routines again and again: they just keep on smiling. It’s amazing.” Each of the country’s treasures is represented in the show by characters and props. The focal point of the show is a central, “living” LED ball made up of more than 90,000 light clusters producing a luminance of 7,000 Nits. While the ceremony will last 25 minutes, the organisers estimate that 20 hours of preparation will go into each of those minutes, with around 84 hours of rehearsals taking place before the big day. “I went, did the test and got selected. I was very happy and excited. I could hardly contain myself,” said 60-year-old Edna Sasson, one of the dancers who will be representing a river at the ceremony. “It’s a unique event. It’s not like dancing at the local theatre or any other theatre for that matter. You’re dancing at the start of the World Cup, with millions and millions of people watching. I’m loving it.”