Featured Post

Checked Off My Bucket List: The Twelve Apostles

This blog has been sitting down and has been grounded for too long. So I have decided to make a bucket list of the things I have already don...

Dance As One

Dance As One
International Views, Reviews & Interviews

Monday, July 27, 2009

My Works

This blog shows some Synopses of my Novels, such as Ice Stage and "Sensuousness" A Palindrome Wor(l)d, also my Memoirs and Articles for adults, and Picture Books, poetry and plays for both children and adults to stimulate healthy and creative views. The adults might have as much fun reading my books for kids as the children will have watching the grown-ups having fun. I've always had a photographic memory that I've tried to develop.
As a writer, dancer, illustrator and choreographer I try to capture the same image I have on my mind's eye to translate it into words. I've been also quite optic-mystic and even my blood type tells me so :I'm a B-positive! I translated and illustrated a magazine entitled "Magia" published by Editora Ondas. I just found out that I had dyslexia before I went to school, after reviewing an old notebook where I wrote all numbers backward, such as Leonardo Da Vinci! And it seems that this latent talent runs on the family: my five-yrs-old nephew also writes his name backwards. But my love for words had me working hard to develop language skills. Maybe thanks to all my efforts to eventually overcome my deficiencies that I could see things usually in an unusual way, making my wor^l^d so peculiar. My books are unique for they come from my heart, my own life experience that I cherish and try to share it with the readers. I made my début in the theater when I was fifteen in the Opera Carmina Burana at the Opera House of Sao Paulo. Since then I've been on TV commercials, Soap Operas, Interviews, TV programs, Cinema, Magazines, Newspapers and recently at the Theatre and TVCable. I plan to create choreographies and dramatization of my stories, to be performed by all age groups. Since I will continue my career as an instructor, as a model/act-hlete, and author, Dance&Theatre should enhance my work.

Hope you enjoy my works as much as I enjoy creating. One of my books is now in the hands of a Canadian editor at Devine Destinies. And what a devine destiny that is!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

About the Author

I have been writing and composing since the day that I created a prelude, composing some notes (which I still have recorded on my brain) on a small piano toy at the age of three. But I first put my two feet at the theatre, playing the flute to a big audience at Mackenzie Institute, when I was seven years old. Since then I fell in love with the performing world. Then I graduated in Arts in 1990 with license in Artistic Education at the University FAAP in Sao Paulo. I started my career at an early age, performing in the Opera Carmina Burana at the Municipal Theatre in Sao Paulo, also dancing for the Young Ballet of Sao Paulo, at The Nutcracker for the Metropolitan Ballet Theatre in Washington, and for the Bicentenary of the French Revolution in the Pacaembu Stadium. I acted in many Dance/Theatre productions, such as the Ormand Dance Company from Germany. I also produced a play by Monteiro Lobato at the English Culture. From 2002 to 2003, I taught Creative Movements at the Montgomery College, in both Germantown and Rockville, in the US. As a Ballet teacher and choreographer, I worked at the Black Rock Centre for the Arts, and in 2003 I staged my students on their auditorium. I also choreographed the musical play "Man of La Mancha" in the occasion of the Fourth Centenary of the Quixote of Cervantes, performed on December, 2005 at the Santiago College. I had the opportunity to perform in a large number of TV commercials and soaps and other programs, as a model/actor, working with amazing talents such as the director Fernando Meirelles, also nominated for the Oscars 2004/05. I performed as a guest (literally!) in Dona Anja's Wedding at the Brazilian Soap Opera "Dona Anja" by SBT and as a "groupie" in "Tiro & Queda", a soup which was shown in both Brazil and Portugal. And I worked in a commercial film with the Chilean director Pablo Larrain, writer and producer of the movie "Fuga", winner as the Best First Movie at the Cartagena's Film Festival in 2007. I also participated in two films that reached the big screen, being one of them where I showcased some Martial Arts Mouvements.

As an International Model/Athlete/Artist who loves to dance on wor(l)ds I've been travelling literally around the world! Once someone told me that I was too short (and too fat!) to be a model. But at that time I had already been in a dozen of Fashion Shows, TV Commercials and Interviews, and I've been shooting still in other thousands of photos and films, and have hundreds of magazines as witness, to really care about what that tall thin-legged blonde Modelling Agent had said to me. Once someone told to whoever could hear in that Ballet School Rehearsal that I could never be a ballerina. But I'd already endured two auditions with more than five thousand girls and I was one of the twelve who actually made it to the Company. I beat all the odds and, in spite of my flat feet, I became a professional dancer, not only at home, but also worldwide. Once someone told me that my English was flat. Now I just signed a contract with a Canadian Publisher and I have an anthology on the way by another American editor. To all those who got the nerves to say the word "never", this is my contribution to this wor(l)d: Take out all the negativity and... For-ever Yourself!



I started to write and illustrate my poetic books and fictions when I was nine, just to entertain myself but I always dreamed of making other kids enjoy my creations as well. When I was eleven years old I created a series of comic books, which I still keep on my hometown treasure island of Santos in Brazil. Since then, I wrote novels for adults based upon my life and Picture Books and Nursery Rhymes for children. I wrote poems and short-stories for an anthology by Mackenzie Publishing (1984). I illustrated the cover of the magazine Magia in 1990 (Editora Ondas). My poems were published on the National Literary Magazine "Mirante" (sept/2006) and on the ezine Aphelion (July/2007). One of my stories is part of the anthology Spiritual Visitations by Zumaya Publications to be released on 2008. My writings can also be found on another anthology "A Thousand Voices" by Adventures Books of Seattle. My book "Life is Too Short Make it a Biog Shot" will be release in August 1st by the Canadian Publisher Devine Destinies-http://www.devineshop.com



I would love to receive upbeat and constructive, funny thought-provoking critiques as much as I deliver them. So, if you have any comment on how to improve my writing skills to reach the publishing media that will be a plus! Any note, from D minor to B flat major (to An A) will be very much appreciated.



Winners of National Swimming Competitions, both my grandmother (at 80) and I were interviewed by the Local News Globo Network Television, and also for a National Magazine in Brazil. My granny expressed her satisfaction on the competition for she had just started into sports some six years earlier. I, in the other hand, spoke about the importance of practicing any kind of sports, to restart if stopped, or to just begin into it, and exercising together to keep the family ties.
I recently wrote an article for the NaturalHealthWeb Magazine.




Ana Claudia Antunes, aka Deka, was born in 1968, in Santos, Brazil. She spent her childhood in the Beach City until 1973, when her family definitely decided to move to the big city of Sao Paulo.




(Click here for a full version):
"Dancing On Wor^l^ds" (on DVD)





In 1973, she began her first drafts at a German School in Sao Paulo.

From 1975/84, she studied at the Mackenzie Institute. Gymnast for Mackenzie and
YMCA team, she participated in competitions at the Ibirapuera
Gymnasium, and she also won competitions on swimming and a silver medal for sailing in Brazil (competing on National Regattas).

She first wrote and illustrated her poetic books and fictions when she was ten years old, to entertain herself but she had already the dream of making other kids enjoy her creations as well. At the age of twelve she designed a comic book, which she still keeps in a treasure island in Brazil and have the name of her first publisher: Editora Ana Claudia.







Since then she wrote four novels for adults based upon her life and fifteen Picture Poem Books and Plays for children and adults which also contain her brush strokes and are replenished with spiritual messages. She was interviewed by a Brazilian magazine for an
article about Tai-Chi-Chuan.













From 1980/88 she studied Classical Ballet.
In 1987, she graduated at the official Ballet School of Sao Paulo. As a
dancer from the Ballet of Sao Paulo she performed “Carmina Burana” at the Opera
Theatre of Sao Paulo in 1983, and from 1986 to 1989 “Chopinian” “Four Seasons"
from “Vivaldi” and “Nuages” (from invited choreographers) in various stages
around the State. She studied Dance and Artistic Education for about twenty
years.



In 1984, she finished high school with the course “Translator and Interpreter in English”
at Mackenzie Institute in Brazil.In 1989/90 she worked at an advertising
agency as an assistant for the Art Director.In the middle of the year 1990 she graduated in Arts with License in Artistic Education at the University in Sao Paulo (FAAP) In the same year she went to England, where
she studied Holistic Therapies, at the Centre of Alternative Medicine in
Southampton.






From 1989 to 1991, she worked at Physics
Academy where she taught Jazz/Ballet and also stretching and Aerobics. In 1993 and 1997, she went to Paris to work
as a translator and interpreter for the Brazilian Publisher "Rede das Artes".


She attended classes of Art and Literature at the University of Paris III/IV (at the Sorbonne Building) and French Theater at
Alliance Française in Paris . She worked as a volunteer, teaching Arts and Dance for underprivileged children. From
1994/95 she finished a Master Class in Dance and Theater, where she learned
Anatomy for Dance, Make-Up, Scenery, Costume Designs, History of Dance, Mime,
Improvisation, Choreography, Acting, Modern Dance, Myth, Music, and Brazilian
Dances (including Capoeira) among other elements, to create a Dance/Theater
composition to perform on stage.


In 1995/96 she lived in Los Angeles, where
she studied dance from other cultures (African, Hindu, Indian and Folkloric
Dances)at WAC (World Arts and Culture) in UCLA. There she worked as a Movie Reviewer for HBO. She also signed a contract with Ford Models in L.A. She
produced a children's play called “Emilia’s Marriage” from the Brazilian writer
Monteiro Lobato with children at the English Culture. She also participated in
many performances with Dance/Theatre groups, including the Ormand Dance Company
(Contact Improvisation) from Germany. She made two guest appearances in
Brazilian Soap Operas she also performed Dance, Gymnastics and
Fashion Shows for TV programs and TV commercials (and Cinema), photos, posters and catalogs for clients such as Nike, Volkswagen,
Johnson's Shampoo, L'Oreal, Chevrolet, Lever, Peugeot, Sherwin William's, Du Pont, Wal-mart, Flow Catalog , among many others.




From 1998/99, she taught Ballet and Yoga
classes for children and adults at "Fitness World" academy. In 2000 and 2001 she
became Master in Kung Fu teaching the children at the US Martial Arts Academy in Gaithersburg,
Maryland.

In 2002 she became a staff member at the
Metropolitan Ballet Theatre in Rockville. She also started to teach Movement and
Arts at the Montgomery College. She signed a contract as an employee at the
Black Rock Center for the Arts in Washington, D.C. In Dec/2002 she performed at “The
Nutcracker” with the Metropolitan Ballet Theatre. In 2003 she choreographed at the Black Rock Center in Washington (music by the Brazilian composer Chico Buarque de Hollanda) and from 2003/05 she taught Yoga and Pilates at the Holistic Center "Cuerpo Unico" in Santiago, Chile.



She's been giving Dance/Drama Workshops and Chi Kung & YogaDance classes for both children and adults, also assisting in the creation of musicals and staging her own plays. If you enjoy games of divination here is Dive-In-Action. She published other books, which are all so viable and also available at her Virtual Bookstore