Elektro Kif, who are on their first ever UK visit with critically acclaimed Director/Choreographer Blanca Li, will be taking their breathtaking mix of streetdance to the Dolphin Shopping Centre on Monday 27th February with a short performance outside M&S from 1.00pm.
The dance company will then be performing two shows across the road at Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts at 7.30pm on February 27th and 28th, with a post-show talk on the 27th.
Blanca Li with ELEKTRO KIF dancers
Dancers across the UK are also invited to compete in Southbank Centre’s new digital dance competition Dance Your City to win the opportunity to perform in Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall as the opening act for Blanca Li, who is the acclaimed Spanish dancer, choreographer and filmmaker, who has choreographed videos for artists including Kanye West, Daft Punk and Blur.
Southbank Centre challenges solo dancers and dance groups to create a one minute dance video in front of an iconic landmark in their city, film it, upload “http://www.facebook.com/southbankcentre?sk=app_121827307930964″ Dance Your City Facebook page and compete for the chance to perform in an iconic London venue, with the competition ending on 6th February and the six finalists announced on 10th February.
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 streetdance 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 music 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.
Barely a decade old, Electro is an urban streetdance 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 of 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. In 1999 she created the award-winning Macadam Macadam featuring 11 hip hop dancers, roller skaters and a BMX biker.
Outside of 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.
In recognition of her innovative contributions to contemporary dance, Blanca Li is a recipient of the Manuel de Falla Award, the Globe de Christal and the Premio Max and was named Chevalier de l´Ordre du Mérite and Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.
“I love to be a witness to a new style… and that’s how I gathered eight electro dancers, most of them coming from Val-de-Marne where the first signs of electro style were born”. Blanca Li
Blanca Li presents Elektro Kif
Monday 27th – Tuesday 28th February 7.30pm
Post-show talk Monday 27th
Tickets £16.00 / £10.00 schools / discounts available
Tickets & information 0844 406 8666
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