About Vlad
Neurodivergent, gender-fluid and radically authentic. A life lived between Brazil, Mexico, and Canada — turning every broken piece into something beautiful.
The Short Version
Vladimir Pereira was born in 1988 in poverty in Brazil, unknowingly on the autism spectrum and visibly expressing gender fluidity. Bullied relentlessly for being different, at age 5-6 he witnessed “Bicha Loca” painted on his family's home wall — his father painted over it. First lesson learned: “I am loved, but I am not ideal.”
At 12, ballet changed everything. A community that saw his “weirdness” as beautiful uniqueness. They called him “a diamond in the rough.” Through dance, he found purpose, identity, and a reason to keep living.
The golden years followed — training in Mexico, then Goh Ballet Academy in Vancouver, joining the Youth Company, dancing lead roles in professional productions. But invisible battles with bipolar depression grew. Peers called him lazy. Directors like Chan Hon Goh showed only compassion, continuing to choose him for lead roles despite his absences.
In 2013, his dance career ended. His heart “shattered into more pieces than there are stars in the sky.”
What followed was the descent — and eventually, the climb back. Divorce. Custody battles. Substance abuse. Multiple suicide attempts. Rock bottom came in 2018, staring at a pill bottle. Then Jordan appeared — not rescue, but reason.
Four years of deep personal work followed — therapy, self-reflection, and rebuilding from the ground up. Then in October 2022: a breakthrough. A shift in perspective. “I realized the good in my life had always outweighed the bad. I'd just been looking through a distorted lens.”
Today, Vlad is an artistic advisor for seven Chinese universities, produces sold-out shows that raise tens of thousands for charity, and builds purpose-driven ventures including ThinkEV (Canada's independent EV information platform) and Symphony Belle (a creative brand for kids). The journey continues — now with radical authenticity and purpose.
Turning Pain Into Power
Vlad approaches life with radical authenticity and a growth mindset forged through adversity. His philosophy is simple: our greatest struggles can become our greatest strengths when we choose to transform pain into purpose.
Every setback is a setup for a comeback. The challenges that once threatened to break him — poverty, bullying, career loss, mental health battles — became the foundation for resilience, empathy, and a drive to serve others.
True healing happens when we redirect our focus outward — using our experiences to lift others, creating meaning from suffering, and building something greater than ourselves.
“Every setback is a setup for a comeback.”
The very act of helping others, of channeling our passions and abilities into service, creates a kind of healing that transcends our expectations. It's as if by reaching out to lift others, we ourselves are lifted higher than we could have imagined.
Vlad Pereira