The Belgian-Colombian Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is a prolific, award-winning, and sought-after choreographer that has created more than a 100 works for 80 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. Ochoa completed her dance education at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp. After a 12-year long career in several European dance companies, such as Djazzex, and the Scapino Ballet where she danced as a soloist for 7 years, 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 choreographers (a quote from Wendy Perron, Dance Magazine 2016). In 2006, she imagines 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 ballet choreographer in 2018. In 2019, Annabelle is appointed as the program director of the Contemporary Ballet Summer Intensive of the School at Jacob's Pillow. Annabelle has been appointed artist in residence at Ballett Dortmund in Germany starting from the season 2025/26. She will share the position with choreogrpaher Edward Clug under the ballet intendant direction Jaš Otrin.

During the pandemic of 2020-21, Lopez Ochoa pioneered remote choreography and dance film creations premiered online. She created in total 22 dance films. 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. In 2023, Annabelle's notoriety made her to be invited as a judge on the TV show The Greatest Dancer of Vlaanderen. The show aired on Belgian National TV for 9 episodes in February/March 2023.

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is one of the very few female choreographers who excels in narrative ballet.

She has successfully created 14 narrative ballets to date:

-       Callas, La Divina (2023 - Ballet Municipal de Santiago de Chile)

-       Delmira (2023 – Houston Ballet)

-       BOTERO - full-evening version (2023 - Alberta Ballet)

-       Coco Chanel, the life of a fashion icon (2023 - Hong Kong Ballet, Atlanta Ballet, Queensland Ballet)

-       Platée (2023 – Joffrey Ballet)

-       Doña Perón (2022 - Ballet Hispanico)

-       Botero (2021 - Ballet Metropolitano de Medellin)

-       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, Compañía 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 Gartnerplatz München, Stockholm 59° North, Ballet Nacional Chileno, Danza Contemporañea 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, MoveTheCompany, Jeune Ballet of the Conservatoire de Lyon, Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, ABT Studio Company, Ballet Metropolitano de Medellín, Ballet22, Los Angeles Ballet, Dayton Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey, Bremerhaven Ballet, Alberta Ballet, Royal New Zealand Ballet, Houston Ballet, Ballet Municipal de Santiago de Chile, Bädische Saatsballet Karlsruhe, Queensland Ballet, and New York City Balet.

   Annabelle also works regularly with students and has had projects with the following schools as an educator and choreographer:

-     European School of Ballet (Netherlands)

-     Miami Dade College (USA)

-     Joffrey Ballet Trainees (USA)

-     National Ballet Academy of Amsterdam (Netherlands)

-     Zürcher Hochschule (Switzerland)

-     Conservatoire National de danse de Paris (France)

-     Conservatoire National de danse de Lyon (France)

-     Palucca Schule Dresden (Germany)

-     Munich Staatsballet Academy (Germany)

-     Escuela Nacional de Danza (Dominican Republic)

-     University of Indiana, the Jacob's School of Dance (USA)

-     Point Park University (USA)

-     Codarts Rotterdam (Netherlands)

-     Lucia Martas Institute of Performing Arts (Netherlands)

-     University of Arizona, school of dance (USA)