Annabelle Lopez Ochoa: Q&A on Grassville
Recorded during Annabelle’s August 2025 residency with Saint Louis Dance Theatre. Transcribed and edited lightly for clarity; we’ve preserved Annabelle’s exact word choices wherever possible.
STLDT: When you choreograph, do you find the music first? Or do you find the language—the movement language—first?
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa: “The music—yes. The music, the visuals, then the movements are the last thing. And that research… looking for ideas and music… lasts so much longer than the actual, you know, 10 days that you’re crafting the piece.”
STLDT: Where did the initial inspiration for Grassville originate?
ALO: “The original inspiration happened in 2020 at the peak and the beginning of the pandemic… as I was creating material for all these dancers stuck at home, I noticed that there were more and more plants appearing in their homes… It seems like when we are separated from nature, we invite nature inside our homes… So I decided that they would grow wigs with plants on top of their heads. And this was the spark for Grassville… I had always wished that one day I would like to make a version of the piece for the stage. And here it is, five years later.”
STLDT: How do the plant wigs shape the performance?
ALO: “Putting those wigs on the dancers gives them a persona… because of the nature of how big the wig is, it restricts them in their movements. So we needed to find a language, and I tapped into voguing… and organic movement… I’ve asked them to give themselves a name, so that they become a persona… really somebody, and once they put the wig on, they have to remain in that character. I’m always fascinated by documentaries about nature… you see how plants actually move a lot while their development can’t be seen with the naked eye. I’m using that a lot as an image, explaining what I’m looking for.”
STLDT: And the movement language—what are we seeing in the studio?
ALO: “I have a background in jazz… so there’s definitely within the voguing some jazz elements.”
STLDT: Is Grassville a narrative ballet?
ALO: “It’s not a narrative, but definitely theatrical… I like to see each work of mine as its unique art piece. During my research, I came across this article… about Fordlandia… Henry Ford thought that he could create a city that looked like a city in Michigan in the middle of the Amazon, but the insects, the flora and fauna decided otherwise… Ford was hoping to grow rubber… This sparked the idea to have tires as a scenic element and to create a piece around this world of a man‑made attribute invaded by nature
STLDT: Is that, for you, an interplay between industrialization and the natural world?
ALO: “Definitely. I think that industrialization and nature are nemesis… We have the intellect and the creativity to create things, but we sometimes forget the force of nature… ultimately, nature always wins.”
STLDT: How does your personal identity or lived experience inform the creative choices here?
ALO: “There’s always particles of me in what I make. My fascination for surrealism since I was a kid, my love for fashion since I was a teenager.”
STLDT: Where do fashion and visual art sit in Grassville?
ALO: “Voguing comes from those poses from the “Vogue” magazine in the 50s… a fashion element to it, a swag to it. And painting… especially the work of Salvador Dalí… I find that paintings really guide me into what is the past and the future moment—that frozen moment of a painting.”
STLDT: You mentioned Butoh in rehearsal—how does that enter?
ALO: “Butoh is a Japanese dance where they slow down movement… I think that’s how nature sometimes moves. It’s very actively doing something, but in a much different time frame than what we are used to.”
STLDT: Studio culture—how do you build trust and collaboration quickly?
ALO: “I try to be authentic and I try to be my playful self. I always say that it is the child in me that is creative, and the adult in me is the one that will arrange the material… The studio is a playground… by sharing my vulnerability and my questions we remain in dialogue about all the possibilities and facets of a work.
STLDT: What does working with STLDT make possible for you?
ALO: “I’m mostly invited by classical companies… The first thing I said to the dancers “ I wonder if I can still choreograph in a contemporary language?” And the answer is ‘yes,’ and I love it… Such a diverse group of people, but still moving as one heartbeat.”
STLDT: Our 2025–26 season is Love Languages. What’s yours?
ALO: “I think dance is my love language… the body can convey any kind of emotions, and universally we would recognize them.”
STLDT: If audiences left with one thought?
ALO:“Weird is good. The piece is weird, but weird is good.”
Experience a World Premiere in St. Louis
The world premiere of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Grassville is a milestone for St. Louis, reflecting STLDT’s commitment to positioning the city as a nationally recognized arts destination. When this new work takes the stage, audiences will witness not only technical excellence but a deeply collaborative creative process—contemporary dance at its most daring and emotionally resonant.
Fall Series — World Premiere of Grassville (Annabelle Lopez Ochoa)
Nov. 14–16, 2025
At COCA’s Catherine B. Berges Theatre