Anna Hop in NPAFE’s words…

From Anna Hop’s “Husband and Wife” ballet (courtesy photo)

…It doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while we are happily stopped dead in our tracks when by chance our scrolling through social media opens the door to a cosmic world of jaw-dropping choreography and dance performance that we didn’t know about.

…Which is how you will feel by exploring the exceedingly creative world in which Poland’s Anna Hop lives, breathes, and performs, whether as choreographer, as dancer, or (and notably) as a powerful dance industry leader with exceptional skills for attracting the right people and all the moving parts necessary to bring seemingly impossible danceworks to life on stage and screen.

Ana Hop in La Bayadere © Raphael Ratureau

…In a word, Anna Hop is a dynamic force in contemporary ballet: a skilled performer and storyteller-choreographer whose work has marked and enriched Poland’s cultural scene and already resonates internationally. Her continuously rising acclaim, expanded commissions, and visionary pieces mark her as a major creative voice in European dance.

…That Hop may not be well-known in the United States is that country’s bigtime loss. A graduate from the Roman Turczynowicz National Ballet School in Warsaw in 2009 and an artist of dance highly respected in her home country and throughout the European Union and the UK, Hop has appeared in over a thousand stage performances of her own works and others’.

Anna Hop with Eva Novak in Human Object © Eva Krasucka

…She is especially known for combining classical technique with storytelling and humor, for example in what audiences experienced at her 2023 Royal Opera House and Warsaw stagings of La Gazza Ladra, a nine-minute piece for four dancers, choreographed to Rossini’s work of the same name. The same goes for her Polish Opera presentations of her “Pinnochio”, “Exodus”, “Husband and Wife” and more, among the more than 20 of her original choreographic works that have thrilled and continue to thrill audiences in Poland and throughout Europe.

…A choreographer whose love also for performing classical ballet and contemporary dance knows no bounds, Hop speaks candidly of the unusual balance she must strike between her role as dancer and as an increasingly-sought- after choreographer: “I just work a lot! I start every day as a dancer, taking class and continuing with rehearsals but I’m planning or choreographing in every break.”**

Anna Hop from The Fall Of Dora Marr_02 ©Picasso Dance

…Especially compelling choreography, in our view, whether you see and feel it live and especially on film, certainly including her riveting choreography and performance in the 2023 Picasso Project film “The Fall of Dora Maar!”.

…Remarkable in these and other works of Hop’s authorship is her passion to interact closely with her dancers, to collaborate with them, to ask them what they think, and to listen carefully to what they have to say. And to share her knowledge as teacher and mentor: she has led educational projects for Polish National Opera and Den Norske Opera and Ballet in Oslo together with master classes.

from Anna Hop’s “Pinocchio” presented in Warsaw (courtesy photo)

…How will Hop arrive at the endpoint of her double life as dancer and choreographer? “At some point, I’m going to have to choose choreography. But I want to bow to the audience with dignity at the end of my career as a dancer without having to be pushed off the stage. It will happen at the right time.”

…When that does happen, we believe, the extraordinary power of mind and movement that lies within Anna Hop and her unending imagination will continue to illuminate the world of contemporary dance for a long, long time. Brightly and brilliantly.

…Follow Anna Hop, on her absolutely stunning work-of-art annahop.com website and her Instagram. And you can follow these links to find out more about NPAFE, AAlchemy, and AAlchemy Online’s immersive dance videos.

**Bachtrack, 3 April 2023