Children performing at the Paralympic Opening Ceremony (Photo credit: Xinhua)

(BEIJING, September 6) -- Few who watch Saturday night's Opening Ceremony for the Beijing Paralympics will forget the spectacular children's performance entitled Festival. To the tune of joyful music, over 2000 children enter the stage in delicate costumes ¨C as frogs, ducks and a myriad of other lively characters. Watching them perform a series of deft and difficult movements, it is hard to believe that the troupe is comprised of children between the ages of eight and twelve.

Four requirements had to be met for the children to perform in this show. First, they must be 8-12 years old. Second, they must be 125-150cm tall. Third, they must be proficient in Chinese Kung fu. And last but not least, they must all be affiliated with one organization, to make rehearsals and management easier. After a sophisticated screening process, the children from Shaolin Tagou Martial Art School were awarded the opportunity, thanks in part to their spectacular 8-minute performance at the opening ceremony of the Athens Games four years ago.

Greatly impressed by this pilot performance with 156 children, Zhang Jigang, the Executive Director for the Opening Ceremony, decided to expand the cast from 1000 to 2200 kids. To show appreciation for the children's incredible efforts over the past months, Zhang presented them with a number of gifts, including souvenir stamps and bills signed by the three directors of the Olympic and Paralympics.

The most difficult aspect of the program was harmonizing the dances with complex martial arts moves. In Festival, the children imitate seagulls, cows, frogs, ducks and robots in body movement, facial expression and sound. The fact that average headstand time is 30-40 seconds is a good indication of the difficulty of their task.

For the success of the Opening Ceremony, the children engaged in months of training. Complex moves and lack of consistent rehearsal sites did not deter them. According to Zhang, no matter the difficulty, the children were always happy and managed to make everyone around them happy as well.

To avoid injury and fatigue, the school gave great consideration to good nutrition and rest for the children. High protein foods and proper recovery exercises were utilized. Far from being exhausted by training, the children grew stronger and more adept with each practice.