Choreography and direction: Blanca Li
Original music: Antoine Hervé
Additional music: «Singing in the rain» and «Get happy» (with the authorization of EMI France). Other additional music: Tao Gutierrez.
Set: Bernard Michel and Elsa Ejchenrand – Lights: Didier Girard – Costumes: Laurent Mercier with the support of ADIDAS
Stage director: Gino Totaro – Sound technician: Antoine Imbert – Light technician: Mathieu Roy
Dancers: Amin Benassa, Malika Benjelloun, Andrea Bescond, Grichka Caruge, Karlos Da Silva, Ahmed Karetti, François Lamargot, Espérance Miézi
Roller skaters: Lamine Fathi and Mohamed Sylla
Biker (BMX): Alex Jumelin
Production: Compagnie Blanca Li – Special thanks to: Théâtre de Suresnes (festival Suresnes Cités danse), Opéra de Massy, Théâtre Mogador. Created with Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, re-created with “Conseil Général” of Essonne and DRAC Ile-de-France.
Initiated by the Festival Suresnes Cités Danse that Olivier Meyer has been organizing for several years at the Théâtre de Suresnes, Macadam Macadam was received enthusiastically by the press and the audience alike ever since its first creation in 1999. From then on, the show has always been a great success, at the Festival d’Avignon as well as on tour, in France (Opéra Comique), in Europe and in the United States (New Haven Festival).
The world of Macadam Macadam, a stage turned into a street and towered by a roller ramp, reflects the “street culture” generation. Thanks to her multifaceted talent, her energetic temperament and her insatiable curiosity, the Spanish choreographer Blanca Li knows how to be sensitive with wit, and provocative with elegance. With 11 young virtuoso performers, she stages a successful combination of hip hop and contemporary creation, both intelligent and subtle. Hip hop rhythms meet music hall, and the choreographic pieces run from dancing to roller-skating, from biking to acrobatics. The performers’ spontaneity and sense of humor reach far beyond a simplified vision of reality and overwhelm us by their mere pleasure to dance.
«For me, a live show is alive only when it is preformed on stage. When one of my creations doesn’t tour, it just stops living. And after some time I start to miss it -just like an old friend I haven’t seen for a while. It’s exactly what happened to me with Macadam.
But in order to put the show back to life, I had to give it a whole new energy. I wanted to put in some new elements and take into account the creative evolution of the street culture and its constantly renewed means of expression. I put a new team together with some of the dancers already present in 1999 and a few new comers. I also remodeled some parts of the choreography, for the solos as well as for the collective pieces. I didn’t want to stress the individual virtuosity of the performers, which are all excellent, as much as insist on the contrast between the various styles and personalities.
The 2006 re-creation was born from this encounter: it shows how individuals from very different backgrounds can go beyond their own frontiers, unite their energy and create a whole new alphabet together.» B.L.