Compagnie Blanca Li, the company of choreographer Blanca Li, created L'Ombre, a live performance that combines dance, live and electronic music, video, light and immersive sound with mixed reality. Audience members wear mixed reality headsets and move through a virtual universe where the tangible and the virtual merge, while facing live dancers and a percussionist. The work uses technology from IRCAM, the Paris institute for music and sound research.
Premiere at IRCAM
L'Ombre premiered at IRCAM's Espace de projection in Paris during the ManiFeste festival, running from 23 May to 13 June 2025. It was a standing show, and headsets were required for audience members, who were asked to arrive at least 30 minutes before the start so they could be equipped. Blanca Li has said the intention, developed with composer Édith Canat de Chizy, was to keep the audience close to the performer.
The work was produced by Film Addict and Compagnie Blanca Li, with co-producers including France Télévisions, Flash Forward Entertainment (Taiwan) and IRCAM/Centre Pompidou. It was supported by the French State under the Augmented Experience of Live Performance programme of France 2030.
2026 staging
A new staging is scheduled at the Théâtre Juliette Récamier in Paris from 4 to 7 November 2026, presented by the EDF Foundation. This edition extends the 2025 project, inspired by a tale by Andersen, and audiences will watch seated, alongside dancers from the Blanca Li Company and percussionists Florent Jodelet and Arthur Bechet.
