She danced hip-hop in New York, flamenco in Pigalle and placed dancers alongside robots in London
bowels of the Barbican Centre in London, punters are hurriedly kitted out in futuristic garb, like astronauts suiting up before a spacewalk. Motion sensors are strapped to wrists, knees and ankles; heavy backpacks are hoisted onto shoulders; helmets and goggles are ratcheted tightly around heads. “Have fun,” a brisk technician entreats. “Move around, dance. But don’t roll on the floor—you’ve got a very expensive computer strapped to your back.
Yet, as her experimental virtual-reality show at the Barbican suggests, she has a complicated relationship with the dance establishment, which is prone to fussing over formal purity. As both choreographer and dancer, the energy of Ms Li’s work derives from the friction between rigorous excellence and messy creativity. That tension is evident in person. She bustles in late, but emanates composure.
That something was hip-hop dance, which at that time was exploding into existence. The trip was meant to last three months; she stayed for five years. “It was a moment of real craziness,” she recalls. Students from different disciplines—film, music, art—would step in to help with one another’s performances and exhibitions. It was, she says, an “exchange with other kinds of art that would open my mind”, and that would ultimately “change my life, point of view”.
Even as Ms Li’s fame grew, the French Ministry of Culture continued to decline her company’s applications for grant money. Penury bred creativity. When male dancers proved too expensive, they were replaced by a more economical option: mannequins.
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