Jo Parkes is a dance artist, director and educator who creates installations, events, performances and videos. She is the founder and artistic director of Mobile Dance e.V., which works with around 30 artists on socially committed projects in communities where access to art is restricted. Since 2014, together with special needs teacher Barbara Weidner, she has been leading the JUNCTION project for people living in refugee shelters in Berlin. She also directs the quarterly dance parties in the Uferstudios. Internationally she gives lectures and conducts workshops.

Parkes studied choreography at UCLA and English literature and modern languages at Oxford University. Her work ›On Tradition: the young generation‹ was invited to the Youth Dance Theatre Meeting in 2017. In 2002 she won the Bonnie Bird New Choreography Award (UK), in 2009 a Kinder zum Olymp-Förderung (Children to Olympus funding) for the project ›Postkarten aus Berlin‹ and in 2016 a scholarship from the Berlin Senate. In 2019, Jo was awarded a prize for outstanding development in dance by the jury for the German Dance Prize.