Imre van Opstal (born in Blerick, Netherlands in 1989) is an international choreographer, director and performing artist. She received her early training at the ‘Vooropleiding Dans’ in Venlo under the direction of Liesbeth Wiertz. After graduating from high school she went on to study at Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam from 2007 till 2011.
In her third year she was one of the 9 selected dancers to be part of the unique project called ‘RUIS’, choreographed by Conny Janssen in context of the Rotterdam European Youth Capitol. After which she joined the company ‘Conny Janssen Danst’, to be part of a location project called ‘Common Ground’. It was an atmospheric open air event, performed every night during 3 weeks on a rooftop in the centre of Rotterdam. That same year she was selected by Itzik Galili and Krisztina de Chatel to join ‘Dansgroep Amsterdam’ as an intern.
After completing Codarts University of the Arts and receiving her Bachelor Degree in 2011, Imre went on to join Carte Blanche, the Norwegian national company of contemporary dance based in Bergen, Norway. The following year in 2012 she returned to the Netherlands and joined the world renowned Nederlands Dans Theater 2, after which she continued in Nederlands Dans Theater 1 in 2015.
During her time in Nederlands Dans Theater Imre created with and performed in works by renowned choreographers, including; Jiri Kylian, Ohad Naharin, Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar, Paul Lightfoot & Sol Leon, Johan Inger, Alexander Ekman, Franck Chartier, Marco Goecke, Andrea Miller among others. During her time as a professional dancer, the respective companies she danced for toured worldwide to famous and renowned theatres, for example The Joyce Theatre, New York City Centre, Sadler’s Wells, The Bolshoi Theatre.
Imre was nominated for best Dancer Audience Award in 2013. She was nominated for the Piket Kunst Prijzen in 2014 and the Encouragement price from Dansersfonds’79. In 2017 she was nominated by the VSCD (Dutch Theatre Association) for the Silver Swan Award: the ‘most impressive dance achievement’ for her role in ‘Salt Womb’ by Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar and ultimately won the award.
Imre, moved to Israel in 2017 and joined the prestigious Batsheva Dance Company under the direction of Ohad Naharin. Whilst dancing for the company until 2020 she also became a certified gaga teacher. An innovative and constantly evolving movement language developed by Naharin.
In tandem with her career as a professional dancer Imre started developing her choreographic skills. Starting with her participation in the annual benefit event ‘Switch’ by Nederlands Dans Theater. Imre and Marne created their first work ‘Arm’s Length’ for Switch after which they created ‘LiNK’ (2014) and ‘John Doe’ (2015) for their talent development program called ‘Up & Coming Choreographers’. In 2017 they debuted with ‘The Grey’ for NDT2’s regular programming and continued to create ‘Take Root’ (2019) for NDT1. Take Root was nominated by the VSCD for the Swan Award: ‘most impressive dance production 2019’.
Since 2020 Imre and Marne are fully focused on their choreographic career and have created works for various international dance companies. Creating ‘Baby dont hurt me’ (2021) for NDT1, ‘Eye Candy’ (2021) for Rambert Dance Company, ‘The little man’ (2022) for National Theater Mannheim and ‘I’m afraid to forget your smile’ for the Hessian State Ballet, ‘Heart Drive’ for Ballet BC, ‘Mommy, Look!’ for Ballett Theater Basel, ‘To Kingdom Come’ for GoteborgOperans Danskompani and ‘The Point Being’ for NDT1 in collaboration with Studio Drift.
Their latest work ‘Voodoo Waltz’ marks their first full evening created in collaboration with Schauspielhaus Bochum. An interdisciplinary work with actors and selected dancers. Inspired by the book: ‘Voodoo Waltz for epileptics’ by Slovenian writer Jana Rakus. A dizzying world where dance meets drama, text becomes movement and movement creates subtext.
