L’Ombre

A dance and mixed-reality production created by Blanca Li from Andersen's tale The Shadow. Audience members wear virtual reality headsets while dancers and a percussionist perform live.

This dance and mixed-reality show, created by choreographer Blanca Li with composer Édith Canat de Chizy, is presented in Spain in the Sala Verde of the Teatros del Canal. Its starting point is Hans Christian Andersen's tale: a scholar watches his shadow gain autonomy until it ends up dominating him.

On stage, dancers from the Compagnie Blanca Li perform alongside a percussionist who plays the music live. Each spectator wears a virtual reality headset that immerses them in a fantastical universe, so that what physically happens on stage coexists with digital images and spaces. The sound incorporates technologies developed by IRCAM-Centre Pompidou.

The piece raises questions about identity, perception, the real and the virtual, or good and evil, and reflects on increasingly autonomous digital shadows, asking who controls whom. It is a proposal aimed at children that seeks to unsettle what the spectator perceives.