Maria Salgado is Head of Academic and Contextual Studies and MFA Programme Leader at the School of Dance, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where she provides strategic leadership in curriculum design, learning and teaching, and research development. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK). 

Prior to her appointment at the Academy, Dr. Salgado was Director of Programmes and Senior Lecturer in Dance at Middlesex University London (2018–2024). She held senior academic roles at Kingston University (2009–2017) and the Royal Academy of Dance (2007–2009). She has contributed to the field through governance and peer review, serving on the Executive Committee of the Society for Dance Research (2014–2020), the Editorial Advisory Board of the Dance Research Journal (2015–2020), and as Chair of the London Regional Committee of the Royal Academy of Dance (2012–2015). She has also acted as external examiner for the Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance (London, UK)  

As an interdisciplinary researcher, award-winning creative, and artist-scholar, Dr. Salgado’s practice-based research lies at the intersection of performance, cultural studies, film, and the archive. Her research focuses on the body and embodied experience as an epistemological gateway to new understandings in practice-based contexts. She is the recipient of multiple international awards for her creative work in dance film, including Best Film (Florence, Italy), the Dance Film Prize and Best Experimental Film (London, UK), Best Underwater and Best Aerial Cinematography (Amsterdam, Netherlands), and the Audience Choice Award (San Juan, Puerto Rico). 

Dr. Salgado holds a Ph.D. in PaR from Kingston University (2021), focusing on embodiment, archives, and historiography. She completed her MA in Dance Cultures, Histories, and Practices at the University of Surrey (2008), where she received the Pauline Hodgens Memorial Prize in dance analysis. A former principal dancer in German opera houses, she graduated with distinction from the Professional Dancer’s Teaching Diploma at the Royal Academy of Dance (London, UK) and is an alumna of the John Cranko School (Stuttgart, Germany) and the Royal Conservatoire of Professional Dance (Madrid, Spain).