17. Les contes de l'Alhambra
Garden by Blanca Li
published at 20/02/2025
DESIGNER
Blanca LI, choreographer, dancer and theatre and film director
SPAIN
Blanca Li is a choreographer, dancer and theatre and film director. In late 1992, she arrived in Paris from Madrid as a bold young dancer inspired by the post-Movida era, who loved festivities and dancing, the coming-together of genres and the fusion of cultures and disciplines. Thirty years later, still at the helm of one of the few completely independent dance companies, Blanca Li is still as free and inventive as when she was first starting out. With the added glamour of maturity and the choices she has made over three decades, culminating in her election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in April 2019. Her reputation and unique style place her more than ever in a class of her own, enhancing her mainstream appeal and her innovativeness. Appointed Artistic Director of Los Teatros del Canal in Madrid in October 2019, she reopened the theatre as early as June 2020 despite the pandemic. Married to a mathematician and mother to two boys, Blanca deftly juggles all her commitments at 100 miles an hour, whilst staying true to her eclectic values and tastes and her faith in artistic creation. “For me, dance is a universal language that has no borders or limits in form or style”, she says.
She has choreographed for countless musical artists (including Coldplay, Beyoncé, Blur, Daft Punk and Paul McCartney) and directors (Pedro Almodovar, Jean Jacques Annaud and Michel Gondry), her installations, events and choreographies have been hosted in an astonishing number of institutions (Grand Palais, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Châtelet, Chaillot, Opéra National de Paris, Metropolitan Opera, Brooklyn Academy of Music and Guggenheim Museum Bilbao) and scores of fashion and luxury brands have called on her for their events (among which Jean-Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaïa, Stella McCartney, Iris Van Herpen, Cartier and Hermès).
Her choreography achievements include:
- Les Indes Galantes, (1999) by Rameau, with William Christie, directed by Andrei Serban. Opéra Garnier de Paris.
- Macadam, Macadam, (1999) combining hip hop, roller skating and BMX staged on skate ramps.
- Shéhérazade (2001) for the Paris Opera Ballet, costumes by Christian Lacroix.
- Poeta en Nueva York (2007) after Federico Garcia Lorca, with Carmen Linares and Andres Marin.
- ROBOT (2013) show, with NAO, the humanoid robot invented by Aldebaran, in the starring role.
- Déesses & Démones (2015), a feminist and mythological manifesto danced by Maria Alexandrova, star of the Bolshoi, and Blanca Li.
- Solstice (2017), an educational, poetic show about the relationship of humankind with nature.
- El Quijote del Plata, (2018) for the Ballet Nacional Sodre of Uruguay.
- Pulcinella, (2020) for the Ballet Nacional de España to music by Stravinsky.
She has directed three feature films (Le Défi in 2002, Pas à Pas in 2009 and Elektro Mathématrix in 2015). In the autumn of 2021 she created Le Bal de Paris de Blanca Li at Chaillot, a virtual-reality immersive live show, which won the Lion award for Best VR Experience at the Venice International Film Festival. In 2022, Blanca Li created her version of the Nutcracker with 8 Spanish hip-hop dancers for the Théâtre de Suresnes Jean Vilar / Suresnes Cités Danse Festival. Her latest creation, Dido and Aeneas, featuring William Christie’s orchestra Les Arts Florissants and 6 dancers from her company, began touring in January 2023 in Madrid.
She has led the public institution of the Park and Grande Halle at La Villette since 5 June 2024.