Digital Programmes

Blanca Li (choreographer and director):

My first experience with virtual reality took place in 2014 while directing a short film in 360° for my dancers. Even though at that time, VR technology was very limited, I could foresee its possibilities and got very interested in what could be done in the field. I followed my impulse and decided very soon to create something that had never been done before, which is putting the viewer in physical contact with live performers. It always thrills me to try to invent something that could not have existed a few years ago, to be able to use the cutting edge of technology for an artistic project.

I started working seriously on the project in 2018: I wrote a script, designed some visual ideas, and searched for partners who could make this dream become reality; artistic collaborators and technical collaborators but also sponsors and co-producers. Just like for all my stage shows, I knew what I was looking for when it comes to concept, music, characters, and of course choreography. Virtual reality just gave me a lot more freedom to imagine and be creative in all these aspects, while also setting a lot of technical and physical limits on what could be done.

I also wanted enough spectators to be immersed together in a social, joyous, and festive experience, matching the idea of going to the theatre where you can share a unique moment happening on stage with many others, and that was something quite new and challenging in VR.

After visiting the VR section at Venice International Film Festival in 2018, where I could see the state of the art, I chose to work with BackLight Studio who had a solid background in creating full-body awareness avatars in real-time for location-based experiences, and we started working together.

Jonathan Tamene (co-founder of BackLight Studio):

One of the main challenges for this experience was to have up to 13 participants, spectators, and dancers together in real-time inside the same environment, and to be able to replicate it on tour in as many modules as needed. We chose not to design a complex motion capture setup, not only for budget considerations but also to make it easier to install and to tour in different venues.

The other main challenge was to match the richness of the universe Blanca had in mind, with a very high graphic performance and a lot of diversity in animation, and to be able to give a “wow” effect, so the audience gets carried away inside an incredible trip.

Vincent Chazal (graphic designer):

I have worked many times closely with Blanca Li on various films. My experience in graphic design for media, cinema, and special effects was used to its utmost limits, and I loved working together on the graphic design for this immersive 3D experience. I immediately felt the impulse to design a vertiginous space, rooms with supernatural ceiling heights, open fantastic landscapes, and mysterious club ambiances, but with much more fantasy and freedom than for traditional movies or more classical experiences. The universe’s aesthetics is at the same time very classical and futuristic, and we did not want the spectator to feel immersed in a precise epoch or location, just to enjoy the timeless fantasy Blanca had in mind.

Blanca Li:

For me, directing this virtual reality experience meant that I wanted the audience to impersonate characters inside the story, to participate in the narrative. Everything else needed to be designed just like when I do my stage shows: the choreography of course, but also the aesthetics of the scenography, the costume design, the lighting design which are always a full part of my creative work.

I wanted to have an incredible haute couture costume collection by a fashion designer, and I asked Chanel, which has a timeless elegance and audacious identity, and matched the concept of my show. And they agreed to follow me on this adventure, which has made us very happy all along. The costumes are a key element because every spectator can choose his Chanel outfit for the duration of the story, and I could not imagine a better way to make them feel they are indeed our very special guests to Le Bal de Paris. BackLight had to work a lot to make the movements of the fabric feel real and beautiful.

Tao Gutierrez (music composer and musical director):

In Le Bal de Paris de Blanca Li, the music plays a very important role. The songs tell the story and convey the characters’ feelings. The music sets the mood for the three acts of the show, and also creates moments for the public to dance, following the dancers and interacting within the show in a unique way. During all of the three acts, the music defines the characters and the story.

In the first act, we hear the sounds of a classical waltz orchestra recreating the music played in the large ballrooms in the middle of the 19th century. For this act, the music was recorded in Berlin, with the Babelsberg Film Orchestra.

The second act occurs in a garden with a small gypsy ensemble playing from the bandstand. The mood is festive and inspired by Balkan gypsy music. The recording of the gypsy band songs was made in Madrid, on my original score.

For the third act, set in a Parisian club, the music draws you toward a wild Cancan played by a jazz big band that makes the audience dance, clap and laugh, for a special moment. The music for the third act was also recorded in Berlin, with the Omniversal Earkestra.

All songs were recorded and are available in French, English and Spanish.

Etienne Li (Producer):

Funding this ambitious project has definitely been the highest and most successful challenge we’ve met within Blanca Li Company’s production history. The result is a combination of strong private and public partnership, which was built over the years, with marked interest from the cinema public funds for new media and virtual reality. Chanel, our earliest and main private sponsor, without whom the project could never have been born, understood from the beginning the artistic and innovative potential of Blanca Li’s show. The CNC, the French national public fund for cinema, got also convinced at a very early stage by the artistic goals of our venture. The European Community Media program, the City of Paris, the Berlin Medienboard, the Luxembourg Film Fund, managed to make it a full European project. Private grants from Epic Games in USA, and participation from HTC Vive Arts in Taïwan, have also contributed to the production and taken its reach overseas. Our public response has been incredibly successful, with a Lion for Best VR Experience awarded at Venice International Film Festival in September 2021, followed by a full-size premiere at Chaillot in Paris, and a four month run at Theatre le Palace in Paris as well, greeting more than 20,000 spectators in a few months, before coming to London.

Blanca Li:

The real lead in all my creative work is I want it to be a festive experience. I want the audience to have a lot of fun, to forget that they are in a virtual world and to feel that they are taking part in a real time party, and to enjoy dancing for real! And when they’ll get out of the virtual experience they’ll suddenly realize and tell themselves “wow, what an amazing and fun experience I have been through!” That is exactly what I am interested in.

Blanca Li – Creator, Libretto, Director, and Choreography

After five years of training with Martha Graham in New York, Blanca Li founded her own independent dance company in 1993 in Paris. For the past 30 years, her shows have toured around the world’s most prestigious stages. She has also directed three feature films.

Her passion for new technologies gives them a special place in her various creations, such as in ROBOT which featured NAO robots in a memorable show.

Well-known institutions, ballet, opera houses and museums, fashion designers, stage and film directors regularly seek her contribution as a stage director, choreographer, and filmmaker.

In 2019, she was elected member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts and chosen by the government of Comunidad de Madrid to be the artistic director of Teatros del Canal.

Vincent Chazal – Visual Creation Director

After graduating from Penninghen (ESAG) in artistic direction, Vincent Chazal has been working since 1992 as a graphic designer, VFX / AD and motion designer, notably in post-production, for Première Heure, St Louis, and recently at Bizaroïd. As a multifaceted professional, he is curious about new technologies, he likes to ‘cook’ images, experimenting with a variety of techniques, media, and software to get off the beaten track. He has collaborated with Jean-Paul Goude, Marc Caro, Tran Anh Hung, Barnaby Roper (The Dress, 2017), Eric Minh Cuong Castaing (L’Âge d’Or, Audi Talent Awards 2018), Jean-Vincent Puzos, etc. He has worked with Blanca Li on various projects in the past twenty years.

Tao Gutierrez – Musical Director and Composer

Back in Spain after 11 years in New York, where he completed his musical training, Tao Gutierrez began a career as a composer of film music. He has composed, produced, and recorded numerous musical scores for the Blanca Li Company and for the theatre (El Eunuco, Titus Andronicus - Festival of Mérida). His work has been awarded multiple prizes (best film music at the Montpellier Film Festival, Malaga). He created El Interprete, a musical show that was sold out all over Spain and Latin America for four years.

Etienne Li – Producer

Etienne Li has held the position of administrator and show producer for the Blanca Li Company since its very beginnings. Alumni of École Normale Supérieure and Columbia University in Mathematics, he also works as a professor for engineering students. Etienne Li diligently and pleasurably devotes himself to learning new languages or technological competencies as well as initiating collaborations at the crossroads of art and science.

BackLight – VR Development

BackLight is a production company specialising in animated films and VR experiences. Producers, writers, directors, and developers from diverse backgrounds in visual creation, communication, and video gaming are part of one team with a shared passion for beautiful images and powerful storylines. They imagine, direct and produce passive, interactive, and dynamic experiences in Virtual Reality.

Chanel – Costumes

Chanel fashion house has very old ties with dance. Gabrielle Chanel always had a strong interest in this art and she has mixed and worked with leading figures of the dance world, like Nijinsky and Serge Lifar. Today, Chanel continues supporting dance, especially by patronage for companies (Opera de Paris) or ballets all around the world. For Le Bal de Paris de Blanca Li, the Chanel fashion house dares to design clothes for a virtual reality.