Annabelle Lopez Ochoa

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (born 30 April 1973) is an international choreographer based out of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Ochoa, who is half-Colombian and half-Belgian, completed her dance training at the Royal Ballet Academy in Antwerp, Belgium. She appeared with various German companies before eventually joining Djazzex, a contemporary dance company, in 1993. In 1997, she joined Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, where she was a soloist for seven years. .

Overall, Ochoa’s work relates emotional experience through an abstract but intently connected style of choreography, which occasionally relies on virtuosic technique. Her movement is contemporary, however, she occasionally displays classical virtuosity, such as a soaring grand jeté. Because she uses the abstract form, her works do not have established plot lines or characters. She does, however, want the dancers to “tell a story” within the work. She achieves this by emphasizing the eyes, using them as a connecting point among the dancers on stage as well as with the audience. To organize her movement, she is interested in “constructed chaos,” a carefully structured work that appears to lack structure. This method makes her creations insightfully detailed while remaining well organized. Ochoa enjoys working with a wide range of dancers, and also enjoys working with actors. She finds inspiration primarily from art and music, not from the dancers or from other choreographers.

Ochoa’s first critically acclaimed work in the United States is Before After, a seven-minute duet which “delineates the last moments of a relationship.”The New York Times described the number as short and simple, but also “the most moving, the most mysterious, the most heartily cheered.Clive Barnes raved that it was the “best in the…shows.” Not every reviewer shared this enthusiasm, however; Laura Bleiberg suggested that the piece was not unique in its themes or structure, and that “Ochoa added few insights.” Before After is at this date on the repertoire of Dutch National Ballet, Finnish National Ballet, Gothenborg Ballet, Ballet Hispanico, Whim Whim, and Pacific Northwest Ballet.

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