17. Les contes de l'Alhambra
Garden by Blanca Li
The idea for this garden initially sprung up in the imagination of acclaimed Franco-Spanish choreographer Blanca Li, currently President of the La Villette cultural venue, whose passion for the Alhambra Gardens in Granada, water features and colourful interplay is well-known. In it, she gives full expression to the generosity and grace that are hallmarks of her dance style and once again beckons us into a world of abundance, the likes of which can only exist in fairytales. Unless, of course, it comes to Chaumont-sur-Loire this year, that is...
DESIGNER
Arriving in Paris in 1992, Blanca Li founded one of the few fully independent dance companies and remains, thirty years later, as free-spirited and inventive as ever. Her election to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2019 crowned a career marked by audacity and diversity. Appointed artistic director of Los Teatros del Canal in Madrid in 2019, she reopened the theater in June 2020 despite the pandemic.
Married to a mathematician and mother of two boys, she juggles a prolific career, collaborating with numerous artists and prestigious institutions. Her work has been showcased on some of the world’s most renowned stages (Opéra National de Paris, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Guggenheim Bilbao…), while the fashion and luxury industries regularly call on her expertise (Jean-Paul Gaultier, Hermès, Cartier…).
Her most iconic productions include Macadam, Macadam (1999), blending hip-hop and urban sports, Shéhérazade (2001) for the Paris Opera Ballet, ROBOT (2013) featuring the humanoid robot NAO, Solstice (2017), a poetic reflection on humanity and nature, and Le Bal de Paris de Blanca Li (2021), an immersive virtual reality performance awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
She has directed three feature films and, in 2022, reimagined The Nutcracker in a hip-hop version. Her latest creation, Dido and Aeneas, featuring William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants, began touring in 2023 in Madrid.
Since June 2024, Blanca Li has been the director of the public institution managing the Parc and Grande Halle de La Villette.
