Director
Valentina Marini has served the global artistic community as Cultural Manager and Artistic Curator since 1997. With 15 years of dance training, her management and curation is underpinned by a precise ability to balance artistry and pragmatism with compassionate expertise. From 1996-2001 she was the Production Assistant and later Production Manager at “Garda Festival”. She founded and directed “Danza d’Estate” (1998-2000), a Festival dedicated to contemporary dance and new language in the iconic Giardino Giusti garden of Verona. Marini then joined forces with Mauro Astolfi in the founding and development of Italy’s Spellbound Contemporary Ballet, where she was first producer in 2000 and later Executive Director from 2005.
Her leadership and development has launched the company presence into the international sphere. In 2002 she created “European Dance Alliance”, an agency which supports dance artists and educational programs. EDA is a liaison between the youth and professional worlds, creating meaningful exchanges through collaborative series and workshops led by today’s prominent European dance artists and tomorrow’s generation of future professionals. Marini was chief coordinator of EDA’s workshops, choreographic competitions, and international collaborative platforms such as Antixorpi XL, Cross Connection Competition, and Moving Theater Meets Friends. Marini has been writer and supervising columnist for “Danzasì Magazine” since 2003, focusing on international cultural systems with a dance market emphasis and in 2006 coordinated the magazine’s accompanying events (Danzasì International Competition, Meetings, Exhibitions). In 2006 she was Producer at Roman Society Laratti Srl for projects: “Tersicore Festival” in the Conciliazione Auditorium, “Avvertenze Generali,” “Natale Di Roma” 2009 edition, and “Reate Festival” 2009 and 2010 edition where Marini and Monica Ratti co-coordinated the dance programming for Artistic Director Raffaele Paganini. Marini and Ratti went on to coordinate for MIUR (Ministry for the University and Research) in partnership with Flavio Vespasiano Establishment of Rieti for the project “Danza e/è cultura – un ponte tra Italia e Israele” (2011) with Batsheva Dance Company.
Her key role in forging the Italian relationship with Israeli Embassy has segued a movement for the presence of contemporary Israeli culture in Italy and expanded the global presence of valuable artists: Idan Sharabi, Roy Assaf, Adi Boutrous, Ella Rothschild, Nadav Zelner, Adi Salant, Hillel Kogan, Vertigo Dance Company, Gil Kerer among others. In 2007 Marini went on to create “Contemporaneamente a Roma”, an annual platform for 20 emerging Italian choreographers and artists. This project is part of her foundational commitment to support contemporary language and expression. Since 2009 she has been the artistic director of the summer dance activities at the Circeo National Park by Litorale Spain collaboration with Latium Region, Sabaudia municipal district and ATCL (Theater Association of the Latium municipal districts). Most recently, Marini’s leadership has expanded internationally. She is the Dance and Foreign Relations Advisor for “Milano Danza Expo”, for DAF (Dance Arts Faculty) from 2011, Dance Consultant for Theater Carcano in Milan from 2015, and is Italian Artist Representative for Shirley Esseboom from 2011 and Emanuel Gat Dance from 2016. Curator of the dance season for the Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo in Rome since 2016, of which she plays as Co_director since 2020. In 2017 she produced the project InMovimento for Teatro Eliseo in Rome. She is Artistic Director of the Festival Fuori Programma in Rome, 2011-2012 she coordinated the dance table at the Regional Union Agis Lazio, and since 2010 she is Vice President of AIDAP within Federvivo-Agis, a trade association that embraces the structural production of live dance performances where she will assume Presidency in 2019. In 2022 she is called as member of the Ministry of Culture pannel of Dance.