The VOA company was created in September 2021 with the aim of supporting the projects of choreographer Calixto Neto.
Coming from Brazil after six years with Lia Rodrigues' company, Calixto moved to France in 2013 to pursue the ex.e.r.ce master’s program at the Centre Chorégraphique de Montpellier, under the direction of Mathilde Monnier.
Since his arrival in France, Calixto has developed numerous collaborations with choreographers and visual artists, working as a performer. At the same time, he has developed his choreographic practice, which materializes in performances, writings, films, pedagogical exchanges, and multifaceted artistic encounters.
From the beginning of his career as a creator, Calixto has been interested in the discourses and artistic practices produced by actors from minority, dissident, and peripheral groups. Discourses that question the current state of society, as well as the origins of this state of affairs.
In 2021, Calixto Neto wanted to establish his own structure to carry out his various projects in delegated production and to enable the development of the work initiated independently for several years. He thus partnered with producer Julie Le Gall to develop this work in close cooperation.
The VOA company is associated with Points communs, Nouvelle scène nationale Cergy-Pontoise / Val d’Oise for the period 2024-2026 and is supported in its structuring by the DRAC Ile-de-France.
The association 's board consists of Marcia Bechara, journalist; Kerstin Schroth, director of the Moving in November festival in Helsinki; and Chloé Perol, administrator.
The administration of the association, the production management of projects, and the development of activities are handled by Julie Le Gall.
The association is based in Île-de-France.
CALIXTO NETO
Originally from Recife in Brazil and living in France since 2013, Calixto Neto trained in theater at the Federal University of Pernambuco, then in dance within the Experimental Dance Group before following the master's degree in choreography ex.erce, at the CCN of Montpellier. During his studies, he created the solo petites explosions as well as the duo Pipoca, with Bruno Freire. In 2018, he was a resident of the Cité Internationale des Arts to create his second solo, oh!rage, born from his interest in "peripheral" dances, on the fringes of institutional circuits. A member of Lia Rodrigues' company from 2007 to 2013, Calixto Neto is also a performer in the creations of Anne Collod, Mette Ingvartsen, Ève Magot and Luiz de Abreu, whose famous piece O Samba do Crioulo Doido he reprised in 2020, as part of the Panorama festival at the CN D in Pantin. Also in 2020, he directed the films O Samba do Crioulo Doido: rule and compass and Pro Futuro Quilombo. In 2021 he created Outrar in collaboration with Lia Rodrigues and Feijoada, his first group piece. In 2023, he created the solo IL FAUX as part of the Kunstenfestivaldesarts. He is currently preparing his new group creation, Bruits Marrons.
Calixto's works have as a common denominator the desire to include other bodies and colors in the contemporary scene and landscape. His practice, eminently collective, carries a desire to value marginalized groups and to inscribe their presence in historical discourses.
Calixto Neto is an artist in residence at the Scène Nationale de Cergy-Pontoise / Val d'Oise 2024-2026.
JULIE LE GALL
Julie is responsible for the production, administration and development of VOA projects. After collaborating with many artists from various backgrounds and co-creating the Cokot production office, which she still manages today, she supported the creation of the VOA association in 2021 and has since ensured its development with Calixto. She is committed to building bridges between worlds that are not always connected by supporting collaborations between different continents and languages, between the rural where she lives and the urban where she works, between centers and peripheries, between disciplines, in order to create spaces for meetings, exchanges and plurality of voices.