The last days of June have been especially intense for Blanca Li, director of the Madrid Canal Theaters since November 2019. The artist was putting the finishing touches to the new program, with which she hopes to ratify, after more than a year half gas because of the covid, who in addition to being a daring choreographer is able to firmly grasp the helm of the flagship of Madrid culture, an institution with a 3.8 million euro budget, home of the community orchestra, and artistic beacon in theater and dance.
More information
The Community of Madrid grants the management of the Teatros del Canal to a road and traffic signal company
The Teatros del Canal face their new season with a lower budget and a more eclectic program
Curriculum to carry out the company is not lacking. Member of the Academy of Fine Arts of France, a country where he has forged himself, with a long list of distinctions and awards, Li seems to be, at 57 years of age in January, at the peak of his career. An atypical career, of course, as close to show business as to the world of dance. "It is difficult to define his art," says his friend the music producer Javier Limón, "because it is extremely versatile." And so much. Versatile and audacious, she directs herself, shoots, dances, performs or creates choreography for ballets. Some as groundbreaking as
Le Bal de Paris
, where he used virtual reality to make
the public
dance
; o
Robots
, where the interpreters evolved on stage with automata. Without forgetting the concern for the environment that its impressive
Solstice shows
. And in addition to that, there are his collaborations with musicians such as Daft Punk, Beyoncé, the Coldplay band or his choreography for the film
The Passenger Lovers
, by Pedro Almodóvar. The artist has once declared that creativity is like a muscle that is activated when using it, and she has not stopped doing it in her entire life. Advertising or fashion shows of his friend Jean Paul Gaultier, it all adds up to his resume and to his bank account. At the same time, he received commissions from the Metropolitan in New York, or the Paris Opera. A success that has allowed him to be a prophet in his land.
In 2006 he arrived in Seville, hired by the Junta de Andalucía, governed by the Socialists, to direct the Andalusian Dance Center.
There he created
Poeta in New York
.
"He got a very favorable agreement, he came to Seville two weeks a month and had his trips to Paris paid for," says an internal witness from that stage.
If you want to support the development of news like this, subscribe to EL PAÍS
Subscribe
The 2008 recession led to cuts that ended with Li's removal from office in 2010, not without receiving the gold medal for Merit in Fine Arts the previous year.
In 2019, it is the center-right Government of the Community of Madrid that hires her to direct the Teatros del Canal.
Proof that Li seduces politicians of all faiths.
Audacity —or “bravery”, as his friend Javier Limón says— is not lacking.
The artist declined to speak to this newspaper after having arranged an interview.
Blanca Li pictured at the confluence of the streets of Alcalá and Gran Vía in Madrid during the recording of a choreography for El País Semanal.
Photo: James Rajotte.
On video, 'And everything that was human disappeared.' (VIDEO) Blanca Li, Álvaro de la Rúa, Carlos Martínez
Blanca Gutiérrez Ortiz (Granada, 1964) grew up in Madrid with her six siblings, in an atmosphere of bourgeois comfort, the daughter of an official of the Casa de la Moneda and of a housewife who set up an industrial cleaning company. At the age of 12, she briefly passed through the national rhythmic gymnastics team, but the dance tempted her. At the age of 17 — a little late to start in such a demanding discipline — he went to New York to study at Martha Graham's school. Her sister, the filmmaker Chus Gutiérrez, was waiting for her there. Together with two friends, the Gutiérrezes created the flamenco rap band Xoxonees, in which her brother Tao and Etienne Li, a graffiti artist and French-Korean math student who would become Blanca's husband and father of her two children, collaborated. The Xoxonees knew some success in the circles of the Madrid Movida,and they even recorded an album. In that eighties Madrid, Li and her husband came to open a bar, El Calentito, where she danced at the bar.
The couple's move to Paris, and the creation, in 1993, of their dance company, coinciding with the appearance of a festival in Suresnes dedicated to hip hop, marked a turning point in their lives. A decade later, success was smiling at them, although it was a success not without discordant voices. Critics of major media see in his ballets more special effects than choreographic discoveries. The newspaper
Le Monde
has described Li as "queen of
fashion
dance
, the most hip hop of the contemporary scene." Roger Salas, critic of this newspaper, considers that his art "is totally out of time with any orthodoxy of the dance profession."
Salas sees Li's artistic success closely linked to his social success.
To his ability to entertain parties and sets and rub shoulders with the best of the famous.
Javier Limón, on the other hand, considers her "an unquestionable leader", precisely because of that good humor that she constantly displays.
“Because he always has a smile on his lips.
He always looks for relaxation, good vibes, that's why he manages the teams very well ”.
An appreciation with which she seems to agree.
When presenting the programming for the next season last Thursday, he defended culture "as a tool to continue smiling."
Subscribe here
to the weekly Ideas newsletter.