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BIO
Annabelle is an award-winning and sought-after choreographer that has created works for 73 dance companies around the world. A versatile choreographer, Lopez Ochoa creates regularly within the dance field but also for theatre, opera, and musical theatre. Her wide-ranging body of work includes short conceptual pieces, full-length narratives , and dance films. The Colombian-Belgian Lopez Ochoa completed her dance education at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp. After a 12-year long career in a number of European dance companies Annabelle decided in 2003 to focus solely on choreography. That same year she is hailed as the “rising star of the Dutch dance scene” (NRC newspaper) and only 7 years later the Temecula Performing Arts Examiner wrote: ”Ochoa is truly a masterful choreographer with an edge for what dance can and should be in this constantly changing industry”. She has been creating new works and new forms ever since and is also frequently invited to teach.
Annabelle is one of the world’s busiest and most imaginative choreographers.
In 2006, she creates a dance for the celebrated Dutch fashion designer Viktor & Rolf’s project at the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Between 2005 and 2015, as a member of the Dance-Theatre collective “Fantasten” she successfully created physical theater plays, which have been performed in numerous theaters and festivals throughout the Netherlands.
In 2016, the Jacob’s Pillow Summer School invited Lopez Ochoa to join the faculty as a guest contemporary choreographer, and classical choreographer in 2018. In 2019, Annabelle is appointed as the director of the Contemporary Classical Summer program of the School at Jacob’s Pillow. A position she will hold for 3 years.
During the pandemic of 2020, Lopez Ochoa pioneered remote choreography and dance film creations premiered online. She directed and edited 23 short dance films that can be seen on her Vimeo page:
Her online work has attracted significant attention; publications including Dance Magazine, Pointe Magazine, Backtrack, TV5 Monde, Dance Gazette has interviewed Lopez Ochoa about her new dance films and the developing genre.
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is one of the very few female choreographers who excels in narrative ballet.
She has created 9 narrative ballets to date:
Doña Peron (2022 - Ballet Hispanico, USA)
Botero (2021- Ballet Metropolitano de Medellin, Colombia)
Frida (2020 - Dutch National Ballet)
The Little Prince (2019 - BalletX)
Vendetta, a mafia story (2018 - Les Grands Ballets Canadiens)
Red Riding Hood (2017- Ballet Black)
Broken Wings (2016 - English national Ballet)
Dangerous Liaisons (2016 - Grand Rapids Ballet)
A Streetcar Named Desire (2012 - Scottish Ballet)
Companies who have worked with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa:
Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Dutch National Ballet, Djazzex, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, Royal Ballet of Flanders, Gran Canaria Ballet, Gothenborg Ballet, Modern Dance Theater Ankara, Modern dance Theater Istanbul, BalletX, Pennsylvania Ballet, Luna Negra Dance Theater, Ballet National de Marseille, Ballet Hispanico, Le Jeune Ballet du Québec, BJM-Danse Montréal, Jacoby&Pronk, Wheeldon/Morphoses Company, Saarbrücken Ballett, Chemnitzer Ballett, Whim W’him, Incolballet de Cali, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Compania Nacional de Danza, Scottish Ballet, The Washington Ballet, Ballet Nacional Dominicano, Ballet Austin, Atlanta Ballet, Augsburg Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Cuba , Grand Rapids Ballet, Ballet Moscow, House of Makers Amsterdam, West Australian Ballet, Ballet Manila, Ballet am Gârtnerplatz München, Stockholm 59° north, Ballet Nacional Chileno, Danza Contemporanea de Cuba, Daniil Simkin’ Intensio Project, Silicon Valley Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Black, English National Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Estonian National Ballet, Danza UNAM Mexico, Nashville Ballet, The Bouder Project, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Dance Theater of Harlem, Kansas City Ballet, Chamber Dance Project, Joss Arnott Dance, Hong Kong Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Sacramento Ballet, BalletMet, MoveTheCompnay, Jeune Ballet du CNSMD Lyon, New York City Ballet, MoveTheCompany, ABT Studio Company, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Municipal de Santiago, Providence Festival Ballet, Ballet Metropolitano Medellin, Los Angeles Ballet, Dayton Ballet and Alvin Ailey.
Annabelle is regularly approached as an educator and choreographer by dance Institutions around the world such as:
-Palucca Schule Dresden (Germany)
-Ballett-Akademie Hochschule Munchen (Germany
-Codarts Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
-Nationale Ballet Academie (The Netherlands)
-New World School of the Arts Miami (USA)
-Joffrey Junior Company (USA)
-Conservatoire National de Danse de Paris (France)
-Conservatoire National de Danse de Lyon (France)
-Central School of Ballet (UK)
-English National Ballet School (UK)
-European School of Ballet (The Netherlands)
-Zürcher Hochschule (Switzerland)
-Lucia Marthas Performing Art School (The Netherlands)
-The School at Jacobs’ Pillow (USA)
-Point Park University (USA)