The Spaniard known for her interbreeding between different worlds (classical, flamenco, electro) is back at the annual Suresnes Cités Danse festival (Hauts-de-Seine).

It is within this benchmark of French hip-hop, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, that she caused a sensation more than two decades ago with "Macadam Macadam", also inspired by urban culture, with hip dancers -hop, roller skates and stunt bicycles.

With a group of dancers based in Madrid, where she directs the Teatros del Canal, Blanca Li revisits this classic.

A must-see at Christmas in several countries, he recently sparked a debate, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom, about his paintings of "national dances" (Arabic, Chinese, etc.), judged by some to be stereotyped, even racists.

A "popper" nutcracker

"I think it's a story, a music that really lends itself to it (to urban dance, editor's note); I like this contrast between the very classic image we have of the Nutcracker" and the hip-hop", "which is really a dance of today", says Blanca Li to AFP on the sidelines of rehearsals at the Jean Vilar Theater in Suresnes.

It does not use Tchaikovsky's entire score but several emblematic pieces from the ballet.

The story is no longer a family dinner at Christmas (where the little girl Clara receives a nutcracker in the shape of a wooden soldier as a gift from her uncle Drosselmeyer), but a group of young people preparing for New Year's Eve in an apartment. dancing to several types of music at the start (flamenco, salsa).

The "nutcracker" has become a robot controlled via Ipad, embodied by a young man who dances "popping" (urban dance based on the contraction and relaxation of muscles in rhythm).

Poppers also interpret the music which corresponds in classical ballet to Chinese dance.

Franco-Spanish choreographer Blanca Li during a photo shoot on February 10, 2022. JOEL SAGET AFP

"It's incredible music, you don't have to stop at titles and names, it goes further than that, it's universal," said Blanca Li.

There are of course breakers (or breaking dancers, a discipline that will make its debut at the Paris Olympics in 2024): they embody the mice and their king who go into battle against the Nutcracker in Clara's dream, by doing "head spin" (rotation on the head) and "passpass" (hands on the ground, legs running around the body).

Blanca Li explains that she chose dancers from Spain because hip-hop there, "unlike hip-hop in France, hasn't arrived in the theater yet, there aren't many companies, they don't have a lot of support."

Springboard for the "dance of cities"

While it mainly took over the streets in the 1980s, particularly around the Châtelet and Les Halles, hip-hop dance in France found a scenic springboard in the form of the Suresnes festival, created and still directed by Olivier Meyer, who had been inspired by a tour of New York dancers under the direction of Doug Elkins.

"It was the first time that we devoted three weeks in a theater to bringing this dance of cities to life in all its virtuosity and incredible energy," he told AFP.

"We didn't want them to be just the strongest and most acrobatic performers, but to be open to other techniques".

The festival will launch artists like Mourad Merzouki, Kader Attou, Fouad Boussouf, all of whom have now become directors of national choreographic centres.

Some had seen it as a betrayal of the spirit of hip-hop, born in the streets and essentially unchoreographed.

“Some considered that the street was freedom and that entering a theater made them lose their identity,” recalls Mr. Meyer.

"Afterwards, they saw that it opened up opportunities for them to professionalize and make a living from their profession".

© 2022 AFP