Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa completed her dance studies at the Royal Ballet Academy of Antwerp in Belgium. As a professional dancer she appeared with various companies in Germany before joining, in 1993, the modern-jazz dance group Djazzex based in The Hague. In 1997, she joined the Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, under the artistic direction of Ed Wubbe, where she danced as a soloist for 7 years. In 2003, she decided to focus her creative energies entirely to choreography. Lopez Ochoa has so far created works for the Scapino Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Djazzex, Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève, The Royal Ballet of Flanders, Gran Canaria Ballet, the Gothenburg Ballet, the Ankara Modern Dance Theater, BalletX and Pennsylvania Ballet. Lopez Ochoa is a versatile choreographer who works regularly within the dance field but also creates for theatre, opera, musical theatre and recently, for the celebrated Dutch fashion designers Viktor & Rolf’s project in the Van Gogh Museum. Lopez Ochoa has won several choreography prizes; in 2002, with Clair/Obscur at the Hannover’s Choreographers competition and in 2003, the first prize and public’s prize with Replay at the International Choreographer’s Competition of Bornem.  In the fall of 2007 Lopez Ochoa was selected to participate in the New York City Ballet’s New York Choreographic Institute. Her piece One has been acquired by Christopher Wheeldon’s Company Morphoses and has been presented in London and New York in the summer of 2008.  Amongst her future projects are new creations for the Ballet National de Marseille, BJM-danse Montreal and Chemnitz Ballet.