ARTISTIC DIRECTION
Valentina Marini
Since 1997, after 15 years of dance training , Valentina Marini has worked as cultural manager and artistic curator. From 1996 to 2001 she was the Production Assistant and then Production Manager at “Garda Festival”. From 1998 to 2000 in Giardino Giusti founded and directed “Danza d’Estate,” a Festival dedicated to contemporary dance and new language in Verona. Marini joined the Spellbound Contemporary Ballet at the very beginning of the project and became Producer in 2000 playing as Director from 2005 leading the company together with Astolfi and helping Spellbound to evolve internationally. In 2002 she created a new agency, “European Dance Alliance”, which addresses the needs of teachers and choreographers, and holds workshops for dance schools. EDA supports proposals and interactions between the educational and professional worlds, and offers exchanges and collaborations between companies and artists coming from the most prestigious European ensembles. While at EDA she organized workshops, choreographic competitions, and collaborations with international platforms such as Antixorpi XL, Cross Connection Competition, and Moving Theater Meets Friends. Since 2003 she has written for “Danzasì” magazine, supervising a column dedicated to the international cultural systems with particular emphasis on the dance market. Since 2006 she has collaborated with the activities connected to this magazine (Danzasì International Competition, Meetings, Exhibitions). Since 2006 she has collaborated with the Roman society Laratti srl, realizing numerous projects in the sphere of production.
Among these projects are “Tersicore Festival” in the Conciliazione Auditorium, “Avvertenze Generali,” “Natale Di Roma” 2009 edition, and “Reate Festival” 2009 and 2010 edition. Along with Monica Ratti, Marini coordinated the dance portion for Artistic Director Raffaele Paganini. She and Ratti also coordinated MIUR (Ministry for the University and Research) in partnership with Flavio Vespasiano Foundation of Rieti for the project Danza e/è cultura-un ponte tra Italia e Israele, in 2011 in collaboration with Batsheva Dance Company. Since 2009, the relationship with the Israeli Embassy has given rise to a constant project for the promotion of contemporary Israeli culture in Italy through which she starts collaborations with artists such as Idan Sharabi, Roy Assaf, Adi Boutrous, Ella Rothschild, Nadav Zelner, Adi Salant, Hillel Kogan, Vertigo Dance Company, Gil Kerer and many others. In 2007 she created “Contemporaneamente a Roma,” a platform for new choreographers and a new stage for young authors, which annually hosts twenty emergent Italian choreographers. This project is part of a wider commitment to support contemporary language and expression. In 2009 she has been the artistic director of the summer dance activities at the Circeo National Park by Litorale spa in collaboration with Latium Region, Sabaudia municipal district and ATCL (Theater Association of the Latium municipal districts). In the last few years Marini has been invited to collaborate on dance projects and advise for international Galas and international tours. She is dance and foreign relations advisor for “Milano Danza Expo,” from 2011 to 2015 and and for DAF (Dance Arts Faculty) since 2011. In 2015 she plays also as dance consultant for Theater Carcano in Milan, and is artist representative for the Italian market for Shirley Esseboom since 2011 and for Emanuel Gat Dance since 2016.
Since 2016 she is artistic curator of the dance season at Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo in Roma, where she assumes the role as Co-Director starting from 2020. In 2017 Marini produced the project InMovimento for Teatro Eliseo in Rome; she is also producer and artistic director of the Festival Fuori Programma in Rome from 2018. From 2011 to 2012 he is coordinator of the dance table at the Regional Union Agis Lazio, since 2010 she is also vice-president of AIDAP within Federdanza AGIS, trade association that embraces the structures producing live performances in the dance sector of which she assumes the Presidency starting from 2019. In 2022 she is called as member of the Ministry of Culture pannel of Dance.