Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Colombian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (born 1973) performed with Djazzex and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, among others, before bidding farewell to the stage in 2003 to focus solely on choreography. That same year, she was dubbed “the rising star of the Dutch dance world” (NRC), while the Temecula Performing Arts Examiner said in 2007 that “Lopez Ochoa is a masterful choreographer with a nose for what dance can and should be in this constantly changing industry”.

The versatile choreographer has worked for theatre, opera, musicals, and Dutch fashion label Viktor & Rolf, among others. Her international career took off in 2008, and she has since created new work for over 100 ballets for 79 companies worldwide, including New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Alvin Ailey, Ballet Hispanico, American Ballet Theatre, Ballet Vlaanderen, Joffrey Ballet, Scottish Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, Ballet del Municipal de Santiago, and English National Ballet. Lopez Ochoa is well-known for her narrative ballets, of which she has already created 13.

For Dutch National Ballet, Lopez Ochoa has so far created the workshop choreography Before After (2002), Solitaire (2003), Since (2007), Last Resistance (2018, with Wende Snijders), Frida (2020) and Quasicrystal (2021), among others. Frida arose from the one-act Broken Wings, which she created for English National Ballet in 2016. She created this full-length ballet based on Frida Kahlo’s life at the request of Dutch National Ballet. This ballet was also internationally acclaimed: in 2020, Frida was nominated for ‘Best World Premiere’ by the renowned magazine Dance Europe, and in 2023, Dutch National Ballet performed it in Los Angeles.

Lopez Ochoa has received multiple awards for her work, including the British National Dance Award and the Southbank Award for her choreography of A Streetcar Named Desire (2013) for Scottish Ballet. In 2019, she received the prestigious Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award. Since 2020, she has also served as the ‘program director’ of The School at Jacob’s Pillow’s contemporary ballet programme.