Annabelle Lopez Ochoa on why Grassville matters to Contemporary Dance
Why Annabelle, Why Now
Colombian‑Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa has become one of contemporary ballet’s most recognizable storytellers, equally at home crafting large‑scale portraits (Frida, Doña Perón, Coco Chanel) and intimate pieces (Requiem for a Rose). Her through‑line is simple: strong dramatic images and emotionally readable movement. Dancers swirl in layered counterpoint and then snap into a tableau like a camera shifting into focus.
This November, Lopez Ochoa premieres Grassville with Saint Louis Dance Theatre. It is not a fairy tale or a biography; it is a theatrical world of its own—playful, strange, and visually magnetic.
Who She Is
Born in Antwerp to a Colombian father and Belgian mother, Lopez Ochoa trained in the Royal Ballet School of Antwerp and performed for twelve years, including with the Dutch companies Djazzex and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, where she was a soloist. In 2003 she stepped away from the stage to choreograph full time. Since then she has created more than a hundred works for major companies across Europe, the Americas, and Asia, building a reputation for psychologically rich story ballets as well as lyrical, abstract concert pieces. Her first full‑length, A Streetcar Named Desire for Scottish Ballet, drew wide acclaim and major awards in the United Kingdom. She later received the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award and has mentored emerging artists as program director of Jacob’s Pillow’s Contemporary Ballet program. Grassville arrives as a new chapter from a choreographer who captures difficult-to-explain images and turns them into expressive and powerful emotions.
Landmark Works
Carmen (Miami City Ballet, 2025)
“I didn’t expect to be simply entertained—I hoped to be challenged. And I was.” — Style & Polity, May 4, 2025.
A Streetcar Named Desire (Scottish Ballet)
“tugs at the heart-strings, shreds the nerves” and “does Tennessee Williams’s steamy, pitch-black masterpiece full justice.” — The Telegraph, April 1, 2015.
Broken Wings (English National Ballet, 2016)
“It’s a marvellous image of creativity and power.” — The Independent, April 14, 2016.
Frida (Dutch National Ballet, 2020)
“unsurprisingly colourful and highly dramatic by design.” — Bachtrack, February 2020.
Doña Perón (Ballet Hispánico, 2022)
Lopez Ochoa “has created a masterwork that considers a fascinating figure with a complicated legacy.” — The Santa Barbara Independent, March 23, 2023.
Requiem for a Rose (2009)
“Ochoa lulls you from one tableau to the next with invisible shifts from fast to slow, busy to pensive.” — SFGATE, September 27, 2017.
Together, these works map her range: biography ballets, contemporary portraits that rethink women’s stories, and abstract pieces that prioritize musicality and sculptural design.
The Spark Behind Grassville
The idea germinated in 2020. Annabelle was creating virtually over Zoom and noticed dancers’ homes filling with plants. Separated from nature, we began bringing nature inside. She imagined that impulse blooming into extravagant plant wigs along with a stage world where each dancer inhabits a named persona. In rehearsal, the headpieces set the rules: the choreography bends around them, alternating fluid, organic phrasing with bold, fashion‑inflected poses.
At the same time, her research led her to stories of industrial ambition colliding with the natural world. In Grassville, rubber and tires appear as man‑made intrusions in a verdant landscape, a reminder that the movement of time in nature is not a human clock, and that nature ultimately reclaims what we try to control. In Grassville, the plant wigs and tires are characters, not decorations.
Jada Vaughan in the rehearsal studio
Inside the Studio
Our dancers describe the work through what they call “hairactures,” a playful blend of hair and character for the wigs. “We’re not just wearing wigs. Each one has a name and gives you a mindset and a way of moving. The hair leads and the body follows,” said Molly Rapp, a company dancer. Demetrius Lee, a company dancer, has named his hairacture Persephone. “The world we’re creating has a female-powered charge,” he said. “Persephone is queen of the underworld and goddess of spring and vegetation, so the name carries the complex symbolism of life, death and rebirth.” Sergio Camacho, a company dancer, said of Lopez Ochoa’s process, “She’ll start with a simple movement, like rocking forward and back, but then she’ll layer in gestures, qualitative shifts, tempo changes and technique to suddenly transform the phrase into something dynamic and interesting.”
Glossary
Voguing: iconic, magazine‑pose; sculptural snapshots and hands that frame the face.
Surrealism: think Salvador Dalí and images that feel dream‑logic true.
Butoh‑like slowness: intensity stretched over time; stillness that is not empty.
What Makes Grassville Different
From there, the piece grows its own language. The plant wigs both limit and inspire the body, so steps have been choreographed for these costumes and for these dancers. Annabelle starts by building a world, and the meaning arrives as you watch. The staging is purposefully simple: light, costume, and a sculpted landscape of rubber tires carry the story, without projections or screens. The musical score wraps the space like weather, with spacious, cinematic sounds and a gentle pulse that lets phrases breathe and then land cleanly.
If You’re New to Contemporary Dance
Try this simple 3‑step viewers guide:
When the stage suddenly “freezes,” note the picture you see.
Ask what the dancer is doing emotionally (for example, leading, resting, resisting).
When a move returns, notice what changed—tempo, spacing, or intention.
You do not need to decode everything. Watch, breathe, and let the world being created move you.
Angel Khaytyan & Gillian Alexander rehearse Grassville
Experience a World Premiere in St. Louis
Hosting Annabelle Lopez Ochoa to build Grassville here signals that St. Louis is a place where important dance can be created, not only presented. Our artists originate roles that may travel to other stages. Our audiences become the first witnesses of a work that could enter the wider repertory. And the city earns national attention that strengthens the entire arts ecosystem.
Fall Series — World Premiere of Grassville (Annabelle Lopez Ochoa)
Nov. 14–16, 2025
At COCA’s Catherine B. Berges Theatre
