Rita Marcalo (artistic director and performer) works as a performer, artistic director, conceptual choreographer, writer and lecturer. She began training in Portugal at the Professional School of Lisbon Dance Company and at the Technical University of Lisbon. She toured internationally with Aveiro and Lisbon Dance Companies, having worked with Maria do Carmo Costa, Cristina Dias, Paulo Santos e Maria Joao Santos. After further training in Austria with Wim Vandekeybus and at Laban, Marcalo settled in the UK where she toured internationally with I.O.U., Emilyn Claid, Carol Brown, Rachel Liggitt, Anne Holst, Litza Bixler and Turveyworld. In 2002 she set up Instant Dissidence and undertook two major touring productions: Crooked Angels (2004-2005) and White Out Conditions (2007-2009). A new trilogy of works (Involuntary Dances, She’s Lost Control e Sem Corpo) will tour in 2009-2011. Her work has been commissioned by Yorkshire Dance, Ferens Art Gallery, York St John University, Bretton Hall, Community Dance York, Essexdance and Dance Digital, and she has been described as "... one of the leading artists in the UK" (Goole Times). Marcalo has written for: Journal of Writing in Creative Practice (2009), Animated Magazine (2007), Society for Dance Research Newsletter (2002) and Research in Dance Education (2002). She also features in the books Performing Nature. Explorations in Ecology and the Arts (2006) by Gabriella Giannachi and Nigel Stewart, and The Dust Archive. A History of Leeds Met Studio Theatre (2008) by Alexander Kelly and Annie Lloyd.

She lectures part-time in dance at York St John University. Marcalo has won several awards (Creative Futures, Interact, Awards for All, Lisa Ullman) and a CETL Fellowship by York St John University. Internationally she has won an Erasmus Award (Portugal), an ELIA Award (Holland) and she was shortlisted for the Caroline Plummer Fellowship (New Zealand). She is associate artist of the Theatre in the Mill Development Lab Programme and of Dance Digital, and she and is also part of the Yorkshire dance professional development programme: The Fourteen.

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