First UK visit by choreographer

Spokesman Chris Challis said: “To create Elektro Kif, French-based Spaniard Blanca Li has drawn together eight award-winning dancers to conceive the first-ever theatrical presentation of the uniquely-Parisian street-dance style Electro - a dazzling blend of breaking, disco, vogue, popping and locking - mixing it up with some theatre and contemporary dance.

“Accompanied by a commissioned score by Tao Gutierrez that mixes techno with electro house, afrobeat, sampling, and classical musi,c Elektro Kif is a show about the hopes and fears, friendships, fights and rivalries of the all-male cast, following them through a typical day at college.”

Chris added: “Barely a decade old, electro is an urban street-dance style that was born in the nightclubs of the south-eastern Paris suburb of Val-de-Marne, and is, it is claimed, the first new dance to come out of France since the Can-Can. Characterised by free-flowing steps with fast arm and hand movements, electro remains anchored in the Greater Paris region and is rarely performed outside France.”

Born in Granada, Spain, Blanca Li studied dance in New York and then relocated to France where she founded her own company in 1993. Since then she has created and produced a wide range of dance and non-dance projects featuring flamenco, feature films, classical ballet, multi-media exhibitions and hip hop.

Outside her own company Blanca has choreographed and directed for many international arts organisations including Opéra de Paris, the New York Met and the Biennale de Lyon. She was also ballet-directrice at Komische Oper Berlin and for three years the artistic director of the Andalusia Dance Centre in Seville.

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