Imre van Opstal (born in Blerick, Netherlands in 1989) is an international choreographer, director and performing artist. Her work has been presented internationally. After having enjoyed a successful and prominent career at the prestigious Nederlands Dans Theater 1 & 2 and Batsheva Dans Company, she went on to pursue her own creativity. Together with sibling Marne she forms a creative duo.
The collaborative nature of their work often speaks to the human condition, limits and possibilities of the body and mind. Their work is known to be multi-layered and surrealistic, with a strong and outspoken dance language known for its eclecticism, theatricality and partnering elements.Through their work they explore a wide range of topics that are often rooted in their direct reflection of society and the workings of the natural world. Continually looking to break and deconstruct movement by finding the fringes of what is possible through the medium of dance. They are looking to find multidisciplinary collaborations within theatre, film, photography, fashion, design, installation art etc. with a focus on the artistic process and hope to find new ways to communicate with an audience.
They have choreographed and movement directed the EUSEXUA tour for FKA Twigs and the EYEYE tour for Lykke Li and worked on music videos with Lykke Li and Ry X. They collaborated with visual artists Jordan Wolfson, Studio Drift, Boris Acket among others. With brands such as Dior, Marsell and Porsche.
Since 2020 Imre and Marne 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, ‘The Point Being’ for NDT1 in collaboration with Studio Drift, ‘Atlas Song’ in collaboration with Anna Von Hausswolff and GoteborgOperans Danskompani, ‘I am Bob’ for Hessisches Staatsballett.
Their 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. They received the German theatre award ‘Der Faust’ for best dance production for Voodoo Waltz.
early life
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 won the VSCD (Dutch Theatre Association) Silver Swan Award: the ‘most impressive dance achievement’ for her role in ‘Salt Womb’ by Sharon Eyal & Gai Behar.
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’. And since 2020 fully focused on their choreographic career.
