An artist was given £9,931 by the Government for a ‘bizarre’ project which involved dancing with migrants in the Calais Jungle camp.
The generous grant was given to Rita Marcalo, a Portuguese migrant who has lived in England for 20 years, by the taxpayer-funded Arts Council England.
Miss Marcalo, who calls herself Instant Dissidence, used the cash to travel to Calais in May, where she set up a dancing workshop and filmed herself dancing with migrants.
The second part of her project, entitled Dancing With Strangers: From Calais to England, involves Miss Marcalo, 44, wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘Dance with Me’ and trying to dance with British people in cities. If they agreed, they were made to listen to an interview with a Jungle migrant and dance with Miss Marcalo for up to ten minutes.
Defending the project, Miss Marcalo, who is in a civil partnership and lives in Ilkely, West Yorkshire, said the project was aimed at ‘raising awareness’ of the plight of migrants. She said: ‘Because the project was Arts Council England funded, it had to focus on how it could benefit people in England.
‘It raised awareness for the people in England about the stories behind what would make people flee their own country – the country they love and were born in.’
It is not the first time Miss Marcalo has received controversial funding from Arts Council England.
In 2008, the department handed her £13,889 to put on a stage show entitled Involuntary Dances in which she attempted to induce an epileptic seizure.
An Arts Council spokesman defended the decision to give Miss Marcalo the funding, saying: ‘The project was about seeing the world from another person’s point of view, all via a free chance to dance.’
Is the UK being nuts art?
Is the UK being nuts art?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”