Annabelle Lopez Ochoa In Conversation

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa ‘in conversation’ with Deborah Weiss

8th June 2026

Susan Dalgetty Ezra, Chair of the London Ballet Circle, warmly welcomed Annabelle Lopez Ochoa to the evening’s conversation. Belgian-Colombian choreographer Annabelle trained as a dancer at the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp. Following a career with several European dance companies she decided, in 2003, to focus solely on choreography, and now has a worldwide reputation for telling brilliant stories, especially about women. The conversation this evening would be led by renowned dance writer and critic Deborah Weiss, who Susan also welcomed.

Deborah started the conversation by summarising some of the many achievements which illustrate Annabelle’s amazing career as a choreographer. She has choreographed no less than 136 productions, working with 90 dance companies. How do you keep going? You must never stop! It's incredibly impressive.

You trained at the Royal Ballet School in Antwerp, joined Djazzex in The Hague, and then moved on to Scapino Ballet Rotterdam where you were a soloist for seven years. Obviously, a very successful dance career which informed what was to come later, but did you always know that you would choreograph?

Annabelle replied that she had discovered choreography before even knowing or understanding what the word meant – at the age of eleven. Students in her dance class were asked to create little dance sequences, while the teacher went off for coffee. The teacher may have been gone for an hour but to Annabelle it seemed like just five minutes. She was hooked and from that moment knew that she wanted to create dance. But could it actually be a real job? At that time she had no idea but took every opportunity from then on to create dance on her peers. And took every chance she could to create for the annual young choreographers’ workshop.

In due course when dancing with Scapino Ballet her director recognised Annabelle’s passion for choreography and invited her to make a work for the company. And then, around the age of 28, during a performance she let her mind wander towards a new piece – and found that she had almost missed her cue. That moment, she said, was the cue to stop dancing; to really invest in choreography and see if she could succeed. So, at the age of 30, she said goodbye to her dance career.

You made a conscious decision to hang up your shoes, said Deborah. Did you miss performing with your colleagues? Annabelle responded that she had never missed performing. By that time she believed she had a good understanding of the profession, knowing from her own experience how it felt to be a young dancer, a mature dancer, an injured dancer, a dancer that's going to retire.

There were no schools for choreography; she simply had to learn through practice how to manage a group in the studio. Dancers are sensitive beings and can quickly feel invisible. At the beginning it was hard, and she learned along the way while making many mistakes. She gave herself five years; if things did not work out she would enrol at the film academy in Amsterdam (which she cycled past every day) and learn how to be a film director….

But you did actually go on to make films, said Deborah. During the Covid pandemic, replied Annabelle. That had been fun, creating film and editing images is very much like choreography. But what she missed most was being in the studio face to face with dancers, so she was very glad when the pandemic was over!

Can we go back to the start of your choreographic career, asked Deborah. You’re known for great narrative ballets but you started, and had great success, with abstract works. As a performer Annabelle danced mainly abstract pieces, but she eventually started feeling that without narrative those movements were empty. I needed a reason to dance, she said, a context. Dance cannot be simply about the steps.

Then in 2012 she was commissioned to choreograph A Streetcar named Desire for Scottish Ballet. That’s when and where I discovered narrative. It was the beginning of a love story; what she was meant to do with her life. Finding a language for each character, making each movement mean something. She had spent ten years making abstract works but now had to concentrate on making her characters three-dimensional, spending more time on research than actually setting the steps.

Deborah then wanted to know more about the music, much of which had been composed by Peter Salem. Annabelle said their relationship had started in 2012 with the production of A Streetcar named Desire. She was introduced to composer Peter Salem through her collaboration with theatre director, Nancy Meckler, who had worked with him for many years. He was ready to compose for dance and they shared a similar attitude to the importance of characterisation, so that worked out well. Peter also does a great deal of research and sends her a lot of sketches for her consideration until they jointly consider the score to be right. Annabelle explained that she is very analytical and transparent with her opinions, not afraid to say that the music should be more dramatic, more lively, or whatever. So far they’ve built seven ballets together.

Gentleman Jack is her latest creation, for Northern Ballet. Peter was initially not keen to lean too much towards a Yorkshire sound, but Annabelle was insistent that it was essential to experience the actual environment; that the music should guide the audience as to where the action was taking place. Once a melody is found for the main character, he will develop it throughout the piece, rather as a leitmotif, so that the way in which it is instrumented helps the audience to understand what the character is going through.

Annabelle herself aims to find the balance between the abstract and anecdotal in movement and in costume, trying to be timeless rather than strictly historically correct. Consequently she has considerable input into all aspects of a production. For instance, in response to an audience question, she confirmed that some 70% of the colourful sets and costumes in the Dutch National Ballet production of Frida had come from Annabelle herself.

A ballet may come back into the repertoire after five years – with a different group of dancers. She will always refer to the original cast on whom she created the work however she said it is essential to remain open and tap into whatever the dancers themselves have to offer. In Gentleman Jack for instance, it was Gemma Coutts who made the character of Anne Lister what it is. For Frida and Diego, in Frida, the story of Frida Kahlo, it was Tamara Rojo and Irek Mukhamedov. A character may change subtly because every performer finds their own way. When a piece is revived, she wants the new dancers to find the role for themselves; not to be imitations of Tamara or Irek.

A work is often better after it has been revised two or three times, opined Annabelle. Often in musical theatre there are many preview shows, maybe as many as twenty. That really tests the audience reaction and subtle (or not so subtle!) changes can be made where necessary. A ballet just gets its premiere – why can’t there be several dress rehearsals with audiences to similarly gauge how an audience reacts? So, for instance, Broken Wings (subsequently expanded into the two act Frida) has now been performed by fourteen companies so Annabelle has had the opportunity to make many small but important changes. A person changes with age, she said, and opinions can change with us.

Deborah then asked from where Annabelle drew inspiration – books, film? She replied that most of her themes about historical women had been given to her. Gentleman Jack, for example, was an idea from Federico Bonelli, Artistic Director of Northern Ballet. The concept for Callas, la Divina originated from the director of the Teatro Municipal de Santiago in Chile. Frida, however, had been her own idea; it was quite difficult to depict in dance because Frida herself had been bedridden and in a wheelchair most of her life, while dancers are on their feet, so she evolved the idea that the audience would be watching her lying down from the perspective of above her bed.

Annabelle is presently working on a version of La Dame aux Camélias, due to premiere in Lithuania next May, as a co-production with Estonian National Ballet. The research is exciting, she said, trying to visualise the fears and dreams of the characters involved. She likes her characters to be flawed – if they are perfect, they’re boring! The research may well take 18 months to get under the skin of an individual and understand the choices they made, although the choreography itself may be completed in just four or five weeks.

She does not like too realistic a set, preferring to be in the psyche of the main character so that the physical surroundings can be minimalised. That had been difficult with Jack because so much of the action takes place in her small house in Halifax, and furniture was necessary to complete the picture. She worked a lot with set designer Christopher Ash, whose thought processes, as with Peter Salem, followed very similar lines to her own.

Can we focus a bit on Gentleman Jack, asked Deborah. We’re getting fairly used to pas de deux involving two men, but this show necessitates two women dancing together. That was quite a challenge, responded Annabelle, because often the grand pas de deux forms the climax of a ballet, with big lifts and many turns. This show would have to be different. Gentleman Jack herself looked very much like a man so she put her in flat shoes rather than pointe; that, she felt, would give her more stability. She also received valuable advice from her queer dramaturg Clare Croft as to the different ways in which Jack might stand and move, especially in the love scenes. She chose intimacy rather than ‘tricks’. And Federico had already run some same gender partnering workshops the previous year, so the dancers were both ready and happy to embrace her ideas.

How on earth do you plan your time, asked Deborah. Discipline, Annabelle replied, and planning. At the moment, I have three weeks free from the studio so I’m researching La Dame aux Camélias as thoroughly as I can now so that when I get back to work on another project I can concentrate entirely on the ballet I’m choreographing. I always want to attend the stagings of my ballets; I try to be present for at least the final three weeks of rehearsal. Frida has just been done in Atlanta, and it is scheduled to be presented at Pittsburgh Ballet, Ballet Vanemuine, Texas Ballet Theatre and then Colorado Ballet. I’m working on a new version of Don Quixote for a premiere in New York, and Gentleman Jack goes to Helsinki…. And do you have ideas of what other stories you might want to tackle in the future? The life of Colette was the immediate reply.

Finally Annabelle was asked if she read reviews. They’re not going to change how the ballet has been made, she responded. However, if they are good, I collect them because when I apply for an American work visa I’m asked for all manner of supporting information – they want to know that my work is recognised as real and successful before they’ll let me in….

Susan thanked both Annabelle and Deborah for a fascinating and most insightful conversation all about Annabelle’s amazing life as a choreographer, working with international ballet companies across the world. She thanked them both most sincerely for spending their evening with the Circle; it had been absolutely delightful.

Trevor Rothwell

10-06-26