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ANGÉLICA CASTRO NEUHAUS

For dancer Angélica from Campinas/SP, dyslexia brought obstacles and a feeling of impotence, but at the same time invoked an enormous strength to find a path, and the path chosen was dance.
Although many times the results were not what she wanted, the possibility of always improving her technique and overcoming obstacles led her to organize herself and create a routine to deliver the desired results, in ballet and in life.

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2021
WAYS

The video "Paths", by Maria Angélica de Castro Neuhaus, works as a metaphor for existencial paths. As a ballet dancer goes in multiple directions during their presentation, we are challenged by life to follow multiple directions. The choices are constant and rarely easy. To a dyslexic artist, classical ballet can be an impossible universe due to the many choreography memorizations required and many other barriers imposed by society that can block development and talent. Angélica didn't let the negative criticism, that on many occasions appeared, stop her from progressing. Thanks to the fight and support from empathic and competent professionals, she transformed what many judged as an impotence in "potence", building and tracing her paths.

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Oscar D'Ambrosio

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DANCE

2022
COUNTERPOINT

The piece presented has a musical background, the instrumental version of "7 Seconds ", from senegalese Youssu N'Dour. The melody, in its three-language version, with Neneh Cherry, is considered a manifestation about racial prejudice. Inserted in the album “The Guide (Wommat)” (1994), it is yet potentialized in a video clip produced in black and white that reflects on the senses and concepts of color.

The work presented here shows Maria Angélica herself, over 50 years old, heterossexual, dyslexic and black; and Jefferson, over 20 years old, LGBT and white, as dancers. There is, though, a representation of distinctive race, gender, social class, physical and intellectual characteristics. The piece deals with these counterpoints, indicating, such as in the chosen music, that only in the first 7 seconds of life it is possible to be totally neutral regarding tensions and prejudice. After that, the context in which we live multiplies its influence in the most diverse levels.

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Oscar D'Ambrosio

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DANCE

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2023
DÉJÀ VU

Establishing 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, to this choreography, a freshness. The title of the work, "Déjà vu" (translated to "already seen"), is a French expression that describes a psychological perception of the transmission of ideas that one has been in a place before or that one has seen certain people. The work, however, brings, to a known melody, a new interpretation, 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 the "Posthumous Waltz," written by Chopin in 1849, his last year of life, and published posthumously. The title "Harmony," in this context, is an invitation to a dance governed by the synergy of each dancer with themselves, with their partner, and with their surroundings, in this case, the gardens of Schönhausen Castle, Germany. 

The interaction between the pair—she neurodivergent, and he neurotypical—forms a harmonious "we," materialized through dance. 

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Oscar D'Ambrosio

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DANCE

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ANGÉLICA
by herself

If dyslexia gave me obstacles and a feeling of impotence, it, at the same time, evoked in me an enormous strength to find a way to be good at something.

Ballet was my everything, I had an affinity with it from a very early age. For all my life, without being aware of it, I chose ballet to break paradigms and overcome obstacles.

Today I realize that ballet was a refuge for me, in times of crisis. Without, however, having been the area where I achieved the desired results or even successes. With ballet, I intuitively felt that there was something within my reach, something that could be known and worked on.

Today I consider myself a very trained person to overcome memory lapses.

In addition to the choreography context, I learned to organize myself, within my reduced speed, ensuring the advance necessary to complete work in a timely manner.

Dealing with my dyslexia taught me all of that, first in ballet. Then, replicating and expanding my learnings to all my jobs, either alone or in partnerships. Even today as an entrepreneur.      

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