ANGELICA CASTRO NEUHAUS
For the dancer Angélica from Campinas/SP, dyslexia brought obstacles and feelings of helplessness, but at the same time it invoked an enormous strength to find a path, and the path chosen was dance.
Although the results were often not what she hoped for, the possibility of constantly improving her technique and overcoming obstacles led her to organize herself and create a routine to achieve her desired results, both in ballet and in life.
@ANGELICACASTRONEUHAUS
2021
PATHS
The video “Caminhos” (Paths), by Maria Angélica de Castro Neuhaus, functions as a metaphor for existential journeys. Just as the ballerina goes in multiple directions during the performance, we are challenged by life to follow multiple paths. Choices are constant and rarely easy. For a dyslexic artist, classical ballet can seem like a universe of impossibilities due to the demands of memorizing choreography, among many other barriers imposed by society that can block development and vocations. Angélica did not let the negative experiences she heard and witnessed in various situations prevent her from moving forward. Thanks to her struggle and the support of competent and empathetic professionals, she transformed what many considered powerlessness into power, building and forging her own path.
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Oscar D'Ambrosio
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DANCE
2022
CONTRAPONTO
The work presented features an instrumental version of "7 Seconds" by Senegalese artist Youssu N'Dour as its musical backdrop. The melody, in its three-language version with Neneh Cherry, is considered a manifesto against racial prejudice. Included on the album "The Guide (Wommat)" (1994), it is further enhanced by a black and white music video that prompts reflection on the meanings and concepts of color.
The work presented here shows Maria Angélica, over 50 years old, heterosexual, dyslexic, and Black; and Jeferson, over 20 years old, LGBT, and white, as dancers. Therefore, there is a representation of different races, ages, genders, social classes, and physical and intellectual characteristics. The work deals with these contrasts, indicating, as does the chosen music, that only in the first 7 seconds of life is it possible to be completely neutral to tensions and prejudices. After that, the environment in which we live multiplies its influences on many different levels.
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Oscar D'Ambrosio
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DANCE
2023
Déjà Vu
Building bridges, in dance, between a musical like "The Phantom of the Opera," which is in the collective imagination, and the rhythm of hip hop brings a freshness to this choreography. The title of the work, "Déjà vu" ("already seen," in free translation), is a French expression that describes a psychological perception of the transmission of ideas that one has already been in a place before or that one has already seen certain people. The work, however, brings a new interpretation to a familiar melody, capable of generating other symbolic breaths in what is already consecrated.
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Oscar D'Ambrosio
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DANCE
2024
HARMONY
The concept of untying and challenging cognitive and existential knots is present in the choreography created for the piece known as "Posthumous Waltz," written by Chopin in 1849, his last year of life, and published posthumously. The title "Harmony," in this context, is precisely an invitation to dance governed by the harmony of each dancer with themselves, with the other, and with their surroundings—in this case, the gardens of Schönhausen Castle in Germany. The interaction between the pair—she, neuroatypical, and he, neurotypical—constitutes a representation of the integration that forms a harmonious "We" that materializes through dance.
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Oscar D'Ambrosio
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DANCE
2025
BEYOND THE STORM
A danced reinterpretation of the text "Wuthering Heights" by the British writer Emily Brontë, published in 1847, the work explores dualities such as love/absence and life/death. The proposed narrative axis is that of a soul returning to the world of the living, crossing the veil of death just as the wind crosses the hills. Love interrupted by the end of existence leads to bodily expressions associated with the pain of the impossibility of a full reunion and the desire to achieve what was no longer possible. The storm, in the context of this situation, points to the cry of all that could have happened, but did not.
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Oscar D'Ambrosio
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DANCE
by
ANGELICA
While dyslexia has given me obstacles and feelings of helplessness, it has also simultaneously instilled in me an enormous strength to find a way to excel at something.
Ballet was everything to me; I felt an affinity for it from a very young age. Throughout my life, without even realizing it, I chose ballet to break paradigms and overcome obstacles.
Today I realize that ballet was a refuge for me during times of crisis. However, it wasn't the area where I achieved fulfillment, desired results, or even success. With ballet, I intuitively felt that something resided within my reach, something I could explore and work with.
Today I consider myself a very skilled person at overcoming memory lapses.
Beyond the context of choreography, I learned to organize myself, within my reduced pace, ensuring the necessary lead time to complete tasks on time.
Dealing with my dyslexia taught me all of this, first in ballet. Then, by replicating and expanding my learnings to all my work, whether alone or in partnerships. Including today as an entrepreneur.
