Marne van Opstal Choreographer

Biography

Born in 1990 in Velden, the Netherlands, Marne van Opstal trained at the Vooropleiding Dans in Venlo under the direction of Liesbeth Wiertz and later at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. He won the Berlin Special Prize Tanzolymp in 2004, The Evening of the Young Dancer (NTR TV) in 2009, and the Limburg Cultuurprijs in 2011.

Marne van Opstal was part of Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) 2 from 2009 to 2012 and then NDT 1 from 2012 to 2020. Within these companies, he created and performed works by choreographers such as Jiří Kylián, Paul Lightfoot and Sol León, Ohad Naharin, Hans van Manen, Franck Chartier, Gabriella Carrizo, Crystal Pite, Hofesh Shechter, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar, Johan Inger, Marco Goecke, Alexander Ekman, and Ivan Perez. He participated in company tours at the Sydney Opera House, the Kennedy Center, and the Bolshoi Theatre. In 2011, his home province, Limburg, awarded him the Limburg Culture Award. Marne van Opstal was nominated by the VSCD (Dutch Theatre Association) for the Silver Swan Award for his role in Uprising and In your rooms by Hofesh Shechter in 2014.

Marne van Opstal also creates choreographies in collaboration with his sister, Imre. Their creative duo fosters multidisciplinary collaborations with theater, film, photography, fashion, design, and installation art.

In 2019, they created Take Root for Nederlands Dans Theater 1, which was nominated for the Silver Swan Award for Best Dance Production. They have notably created Baby Don't Hurt Me for NDT1 in 2021, Mommy, Look! for Ballett Theater Basel, and To Kingdom Come for GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, as well as The Point Being for NDT1 in collaboration with Studio Drift in 2023. Their latest piece, Voodoo Waltz, marked in 2024 their first full-length evening production, created in collaboration with Schauspielhaus Bochum.