Blanca Li

“A multi-sided talent”

Blanca Li was born in Granada, Spain, where she was en route to becoming a world class gymnast before abandoning the sport to travel to New York City where she spent five years studying at the Martha Graham Dance Center. Li moved back to Europe to found her own contemporary dance company in Paris, which, in its 27 years, performed in over 1,200 venues world-wide with 17 creations.

Her latest company works includes Elektrik for 8 electrodancers, Solstice for 14 contemporay dancers and a percussionist, focusing on the beauty of planet Earth and the need for its preservation produced by Chaillot, National Dance Theater in Paris; Goddesses & Demonesses, a duet danced by the Etoile from Bolshoi Ballet Maria Alexandrova and Blanca Li, was performed for a 12 performance series at Theatre des Champs Elysées in Paris in December 2015 and at New York City Center in March 2017. Robot ! the first dance show combining choreographies for humanoid robot NAO and real dancers, has been touring Europe, North America (Brooklyn Academy of Music, Auditorio Nacional de Mexico) and Asia since 2013.

In addition to her numerous commercial film and fashion work, or choreographing for her own troupe of dancers, Li has choreographed dances for the Paris Opera Ballet and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She was director and choreographer for the Berlin Ballet at the Komische Oper in 2001 and 2002, and director of the Centro Andaluz de Danza in Seville from 2006 until 2010.

Her latest commission is the creation, staging and choreography of “El Quijote del Plata” for the National Ballet SODRE de Uruguay, which is touring worldwide.

On April 24, 2019, she gets elected to the French Académie des Beaux Arts, as one of three permanent members of the newly created choreography department. On October 15, 2019, she is nominated artistic director of los Teatros del Canal in Madrid, Spain, the largest stage space dedicated to contemprary creation in Spain.

She has directed five feature films including The Dance Challenge (Le Défi) that featured 150 hip hop dancers and was included in the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival, Pas à Pas, a documentary about the process of her creating her stage show, Corazon Loco and most recently Elektromathematrix a pure dance musical with electro dancers, released in movie theaters in France. At the moment she is developping and producing “Le Bal de Paris, an immersive VR experience” an ambitious project in realtime VR for an audience of 50 spectators, to be premiered during 2020-2021 season.

She has been creating multimedia installations and events for Grand Palais in Paris, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Noche en Blanca in Madrid, and many more. Many stars from the music industry like Coldplay, Beyoncé, Blur, Daft Punk, Paul McCartney, Kylie Minogue…, movie directors such as Pedro Almodovar, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Michel Gondry, Andrei Konchalovski, Jonas Åkerlund… or fashion designers Jean-Paul Gaultier, Azzedine Alaïa, Stella McCartney, Iris Van Herpen, Cartier, Hermès, Valentino… film world have counted on Blanca Li to bring her unique movement and dance touch to their productions.

press links:
NYT feature on Blanca Li (2017) "A Ballerina and Choreographer Team Up to Be Goddesses" https://nyti.ms/2oz7TNC

New York Magazine (The Cut) feature on Blanca Li (2015) http://thecut.io/2cYA6Nn