Curiosity always awake, Blanca Li continues to push the boundaries, by making dance travel in cinema, plastic arts, fashion and music videos.
Choreographer, dancer, director and director of exhibitions, between virtual balls and shows that mix hip-hop with contemporary dance, she is at the origin of a profusion of projects: "I like to create everything I have in mind,” she said.
Crowned with the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, member of the Academy of Fine Arts in the choreography section, the Madrid artist shares her latest favorites, highlighted through the carte blanche given to her by the Culturebox broadcast of April 4, on France Télévisions.
And reveals his projects, the time of an interview.
In video, Blanca Li reinvents the ballet “The Nutcracker” in a hip-hop way
Madame Figaro.-Was there a magic moment at the origin of your career?
Bianca Li.-
Of course.
I wouldn't be here if a stranger hadn't approached me on the street one day when I was 16!
I was walking through the streets of Seville and he changed my life.
He was a writer-torero to whom I instinctively told my dream: to become a dancer and go to study in New York.
Without asking anything in return, he bought me a one-way plane ticket and walked me to the front door of the dance studio of Marta Graham, my idol, who became my teacher.
I was very lucky: I was brought up to believe that I could choose my life and believe in my dreams.
A large part of my existence today is devoted to revealing the talent of young artists in whom I deeply believe.
Read alsoPina Bausch, Carolyn Carlson, Martha Graham... the style of the greatest choreographers told by Olivier Saillard
Three of your creations are on a world tour -
Le Bal de Paris
,
Casse-Noisette
and the hip-hop version of the opera
Dido et Énée
.
How did you choose your dancers?
My dancers are my brushes.
When I create a choreography, I imagine having the tools of a painter in my hands.
The movements are first born like sketches on paper, traces of compasses.
What I like in a dancer is his ability to abstract himself from technique – although necessary – and to represent all the arts through emotion.
For example, in
Dido and Aeneas
, staged with the musicians of Les Arts Florissants, the bodies move as if they were musical instruments and move forward like an orchestra.
In
The Nutcracker
, which is a classic Tchaikovsky ballet in the collective imagination, they evolve by injecting urban and hip-hop images into our contemporary world.
Le Bal de Paris,
meanwhile, involves spectators who become the protagonists of an immersive virtual reality show.
I like risk taking.
The dancers I choose all have a common characteristic: they are imbued with empathy and a vital energy that they want to communicate to the world.
It was in New York that she cut her teeth, at Martha Graham's dance school where she studied from the age of 17 to 22.
Etienne Li
For your carte blanche in the show
Culture Box
, on France Télévisions, you present the dancer and choreographer of popping Nelson, one of the new stars of your company.
What fascinates you about him?
Nelson is one of the eight dancers in
The Nutcracker
, which I revisit through current dance codes.
He's one of the world's
popping stars
, a dance that comes from the United States, made up of incredibly fluid waves and decomposed movements, as if traversed by a visual energy.
Nelson, who is from Vitry on stage, has an extraordinary career.
He started as an autodidact and, after winning international competitions, had access to the stages of the greatest theatres.
I integrated him into my company and, at the moment, he is on a world tour in
Casse-Noisette
.
Among your musical favorites in Culturebox, you reveal the talent of a very interesting Corsican singer and musician, Alexandre Diani, who released his first single,
Pas Pareil
, in April.
How did you discover his duo, Nepita?
I heard about him through Caroline de Maigret who wears many hats: she's a model and ambassador for Chanel, but also a music producer and musician, always on the lookout for talents that make creation vibrate.
Alexandre Diani's music is in tune with our times.
It is a Zola propelled at the time of social networks who writes very beautiful texts and sings them with a voice which is not like the others.
His music reminds me of this disco that shone like a black sun in the New York nightclubs of the 80s. But he is young and he gives it a contemporary electro touch and colors of the French Touch.
His universe and his aesthetic language intrigue me and I would like to make a clip with him.
Among your projects, which ones aim to discover young talents and reinvigorate creation?
I am taking on a new role by taking care of the artistic direction of a place of creation which will open its doors next September: the studios of the Company in Romainville within the Fiminco Foundation.
It is a new artistic lung in Paris whose primary objective is to offer artists a privileged setting for their research around creation.
I will invite artists – choreographers, dancers, musicians, theater directors – and creators who work in new technologies and virtual reality.
It's a kind of live performance Ircam.
We are going to put on shows and find new languages together.
Among my projects, I also have a creation with the rapper Abd al Malik,