Imre and Marne van Opstal are a choreographic duo who approach dance as a poetic and emotional laboratory, a space where the vulnerability of being human is celebrated and explored in all its rawness, beauty, and absurdity. As siblings, they form an artistic unity that flows effortlessly between dance, theatre, visual art, fashion, and film. Their work speaks a physical language that is highly attuned to the zeitgeist, layered in meaning and constantly searching the fringes of human experience.

After years of performing on international stages with companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater and Batsheva Dance Company, Imre and Marne shared a growing urge to break open the language of dance. Their choreographies often engage with themes such as identity, gender, desire, spirituality, and the complex dynamics of human relationships. They create worlds that are alienating and sensual, at times playful and disorienting, but always physically intense. For them, movement is a means of embodying the unspeakable.

Since their choreographic debut at NDT 2 with LiNK and John Doe, the duo has gained international acclaim with works such as The Grey, Take Root, which was nominated for the Dutch Zwaan Award for Best Dance Production, Baby Don’t Hurt Me, a powerful work on identity and sexuality, and The Point Being, a collaboration with Studio Drift that merges light, space, and body. They have created work for leading companies such as Rambert, Hessisches Staatsballett, Ballet BC, GöteborgsOperans Danskompani, Ballett Theater Basel, and Opéra de Paris.

In 2024, they were awarded the prestigious German theatre prize Der Faust for Voodoo Waltz, a hallucinatory total artwork in which dance, text, and drama merge, inspired by the book Voodoo Waltz for Epileptics by Jana Rakusa. This production marked a new chapter in their body of work: interdisciplinary creations in which choreography and dramaturgy amplify one another.

Beyond theatre, they create for film, commercials, and fashion campaigns, collaborating with artists and brands such as Dior, Porsche, Studio Drift, Ry X, Joep Beving, Rahi Rezvani, FKA twigs, and Isamaya Ffrench. Their aesthetic is intimate, raw, and emotionally precise. Their work has appeared in international publications including Vogue, The Wall Street Journal, Dance Magazine, and L’Officiel.

From the 2025/2026 season onwards, Imre and Marne van Opstal will take on a new role as associate choreographers at Nederlands Dans Theater, continuing to build a body of work that is both physically and philosophically challenging, and using dance as a vehicle for empathy, transformation, and imagination.