In 2010, choreographers Marcela Levi (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Lucía Russo (Patagonia, Argentina), who have been active in the field of research-based dance in Brazil and internationally for over 30 years, founded Improvável Produções in Rio de Janeiro, a platform dedicated to training, research, and creation. Levi & Russo are committed to a polyphonic direction in which different inventive positions intertwine in a process that embraces deviant lines, dissent, and internal differences as a constructive critical force, rather than as self-excluding polarities.

With a repertoire that weaves together dances, music, voices, and ways of thinking from different times and places, Improvável affirms contemporary dance as an expanded field of coexistence and critical thought.

Improvável Produções is responsible for the conception, creation, and production of the dance works Monstrous Nature (2011); Mordedores (2015) — included in O Globo’s list of outstanding dance performances of 2015; Iron Mouth (2016) — included in O Globo’s list of outstanding dance performances of 2018 and nominated for the Cesgranrio Dance Prize in the categories “Best Choreography” and “Best Dancer”; Let It Burn (2017) — included in O Globo’s list of outstanding dance performances of 2017; HARM-ONY (2019), co-produced by the Iberescena Fund and NAVE (Santiago, Chile); grrRoUNd (2021), co-produced by Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Kaaitheater, Julidans, Pact Zollverein, and Something Great; 3 against 2: Psycho Tropics (2023), co-produced by Julidans, Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen en Normandie (within the framework of Accueil-Studio), Sítio Canto da Sabiá, and Something Great; what is the chorus. chorus (2024), a piece commissioned for the 32 dancers of the São Paulo City Ballet; and Out of Frame, nominated for the Rose International Prize at Sadler’s Wells, London (Second Edition, 2027).

The company also created the urban intervention Sandwalk with Me (2012), developed between London and Rio de Janeiro with the support of the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat of Culture and co-produced by the Panorama Festival 2013; the collective reading Given Words (2021), sponsored by the Municipal Secretariat of Culture of Rio de Janeiro through the Aldir Blanc Law; and the film short, short, long and sometimes short, long, short (2021), co-produced by Panorama Raft.

Improvável’s projects have been co-produced and presented by theaters, festivals, and art centers in Brazil and abroad, including Festival Panorama, Centro NAVE, Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Julidans, Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen, Mercat de les Flors, Passages Transfestival, Théâtre de la Ville, Bienal Sesc de Dança, Festival de Curitiba, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Festival Atos de Fala, Queer Zagreb, Tanzquartier, MITbr, JUNTA, Kaserne Basel, FIDCU, among many others. Alongside their creative work, Levi & Russo offer workshops at art centers and universities in Brazil and abroad.

Marcela Levi (1973, Rio de Janeiro) is a choreographer and performer. She graduated from the Angel Vianna Dance School (Rio de Janeiro) and has been a resident artist at the Les Récollets Art Center (France); the Artistas en Residencia – Casa Encendida / Aula de Danza program (Spain); Espacio Cultural Azala (Spain); the Laboratório de Criatividade Urbana ON.OFF, Guimarães 2012 – European Capital of Culture (Portugal); and a guest artist in the Rio Occupation London program at the London Cultural Olympiad, promoted by the Rio de Janeiro State Secretariat of Culture. She also received the Batiscafo grant (Cuba).

Her works prior to the founding of Improvável Produções — Image (2002), Mass of Senses (included among the ten best dance works of 2004 by O Globo), In-organic (Klauss Vianna Award 2007; Rumos Dança Itaú Cultural Program; included by the UK-based organization Artsadmin in The Top 40 Illustrated Guide to 2008; cited in the 2008 yearbook of the German magazine Ballettanz; and listed among the ten best dance works of 2007 by Jornal do Brasil), and Around the Hole Everything Is Edge (awarded by Funarte through the 2008 Artistic Creation Grants Program; listed among the dance highlights of 2009 by O Globo’s specialized critics; recipient of the ZKB Recognition Award / Zürcher Theater Spektakel, Zurich 2010; and the Procultura Award 2010) — were presented at numerous festivals and art centers in Latin America and Europe, including Fundação Gulbenkian (Lisbon), Impulstanz Festival (Vienna), Les Inaccoutumés – Ménagerie de Verre (Paris), In Transit (Berlin), In Presentables (Madrid), Rencontres Chorégraphiques de Seine-Saint-Denis (Paris), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), Nottdance (Nottingham), Arnolfini (Bristol), Teatro Solís (Uruguay), COCOA Festival (Buenos Aires), Ceará International Dance Biennial, Casa França-Brasil, and MAM Rio. Levi has collaborated with artists Lia Rodrigues, Vera Mantero, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Laura Erber, Manuel Vason, Cristina Moura, Dani Lima, and Gustavo Ciríaco, among others.

Lucía Russo (Patagonia, Argentina, 1975) is a choreographer and performer who studied performing arts at CC Rojas and Psychology at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), and was a guest student at the European Dance Development Centre in Arnhem (Netherlands). Since 2010, she has lived and worked in Rio de Janeiro, where she co-founded Improvável Produções with Marcela Levi. Her works in Argentina prior to the foundation of Improvável include árida o estepa (funded by Prodanza 2004 and supported by Casa Dorrego and Espacio Ecléctico), El borde silencioso de las cosas (funded by Fondo Metropolitano de las Artes 2008 and supported by Casa Dorrego and Centro Cultural de la Cooperación), Fantasmagoría (funded by Prodanza 2009 and supported by c.a.s.a colectivo and Big Boom), as well as the interactive installations DUO (2003, supported by Expotrastiendas and Casa Dorrego) and Sensorama (2006, supported by Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero and Casa Dorrego), among other projects. These works were presented at numerous festivals and art centers throughout the Americas, including Danzalborde, Teatro Camino/Festival Movimiento 6, Sala La Vitrina (Chile), Centro Cultural Los Talleres (Mexico), FIDCU (Uruguay), PID Bahia (Brazil), Centro Cultural de la Cooperación, Teatro de la Ribera, Festival Buenos Aires Danza, El Cruce, Gabinete Coreográfico, Expotrastiendas, CC Recoleta, Espacio Ecléctico, Teatro del Sur, CC Rojas, and Parque Avellaneda (Argentina), among others.

Russo was Head Professor of Choreographic Composition at the University of the Arts in Buenos Aires (2007–2009) and coordinated the project Dialogues: Interchanging Creation Procedures (2006–2008) in Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Venezuela, and Mexico, in partnership with the Red Sudamericana de Danza. Between 2009 and 2013, she developed the audience development program Futuros Espectadores in collaboration with theaters, public schools, and various institutions in Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. Russo has collaborated with Javier Bustos, Diego Gil, Lucas Condró, Natalia Tencer, Silvio Lang, Gustavo Ciríaco, Ayara Hernández & Félix Marchand, and the group De La Guarda, among other artists.