Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Photo: Titus Tiel Groenstege.

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa is an award-winning and sought-after choreographer that has created works for more than 60 dance companies around the world such as the Dutch National Ballet, English National Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, West Australian Ballet, Ballet Nacional de Cuba, San Francisco Ballet, New York City Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, and Dance Theater of Harlem, among others. 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 narrative ballets, and dance films.

The Colombian-Belgian Lopez Ochoa completed her dance education at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp. After a 12-year career in a number of European dance companies, Lopez Ochoa decided in 2003 to focus solely on choreography. That same year she was 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 frequently invited to teach.

In 2012, she was awarded UK Dance Award Best Classical choreography for A Streetcar Named Desire, created for the Scottish Ballet. That same year the work was nominated for an Olivier Award. In 2016, Broken Wings, choreographed for the English National Ballet was nominated for numerous awards and reworked into a full-length ballet Frida for the Dutch National Ballet in 2020. In 2019, Lopez Ochoa received the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award.  During the pandemic of 2020/2021, Lopez Ochoa pioneered remote choreography and dance film creations premiered online. She has created 18 short dance films for which she has been featured in several articles in Pointe Magazine, Bachtrack, Tv5 Monde, and Dance Magazine.