April 30
Born Today:
Annabelle Lopez Ochoa
Choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (1973-) trained at the Royal Ballet Academy at Antwerp and performed with several contemporary ballet companies before pursuing a career as a freelance choreographer, her goal since the age of 11. She is one of a (currently) small number of female contemporary ballet choreographers and she creates non-narrative pieces, full-length works, and dances for theatre, opera, musical theatre, and film on companies worldwide. Her signature piece, Before After (2002), created for the Dutch National Ballet company, led to additional commissions with companies including Ballet Hispanico, Scottish Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, English National Ballet, Dance Theatre of Harlem and NYCB.
Also Born Today: Indian classical dancer Sonal Mansingh (1944-) began her professional dance training at the age of 18, becoming proficient in bharatanatyam and odissi and later founding the Centre for Indian Classical Dances in New Delhi.