Bianca Li's steps to success

© Didier Pallages: Alarme, show choreographed by Bianca Li.

Why did you choose a career in dancing?  

When I was younger I was a gymnast and competed for the Spanish national team, but gymnastics became too competitive for me. I also turned to dancing because there’s so much more freedom and creativity involved, whereas gymnastics is very rigid - the emphasis is on the physical performance and the emotional part is put to one side. For dancing, I use a mix of influences which I love and which are part of my life, like hip-hop, modern, ballet, flamenco and cabaret.  
 
How much training do you do?

It depends on what you’re doing at the time. When I’m working on something new, I’ll spend 8 hours a day training. When it’s just repetition and exercises, 4 or 5 hours a day, and in really quiet periods 2 or 3 hours a day. I don’t do any other sports, dancing is enough and there’s nothing quite like it!  But when I did Salome in 1995, I included some circus tricks and we had two trapeze artists on the set as well as the dancers – we loved that. Since then I’ve also done some trapeze, but not regularly.  

Photo : from Alarme, show choreographed by Bianca Li.