She is the co-artistic director of ORBITA|Spellbound National Dance Production Center alongside Mauro Astolfi. The Center, recognized by the MIC in 2022 and by the Lazio Region in 2023, draws on Spellbound’s many years of experience in production and programming, built in part on the international prestige and network of connections of the resident company, Spellbound Contemporary Ballet. Since 2018, she has been Artistic Director of the Fuori Programma International Festival, which will be integrated into the broader scope of ORBITA|Spellbound starting in 2025.
Valentina Marini has worked as a cultural professional since 1997. From 1996 to 2001, she worked at the Festival del Garda, first as a production assistant and later as Production Director. From 1998 to 2000, she conceived and directed the “Danza d’Estate” Festival in Verona/Giardino Giusti. Active for years as a curator and programmer, in 2002 she founded the European Dance Alliance network project, a service and consulting structure for the performing arts. With Laratti srl, she participated in the production of the Tersicore Festival at the Auditorium Conciliazione, Avvertenze Generali 2009–2011, Natale di Roma 2009, and the Reate Festival 2009–2010. Together with Monica Ratti, she served as artistic coordinator on behalf of MIUR/Fondazione Flavio Vespasiano in Rieti for the project “Dance Is Culture—A Bridge Between Italy and Israel” in collaboration with the Batsheva Dance Company in 2011. In 2007, she founded “Contemporaneamente a Roma” – a platform for emerging choreographers. In 2009, she served as artistic director of the dance section of the summer activities at Circeo National Park, organized by Litorale spa in collaboration with the Lazio Region, the Municipality of Sabaudia, and ATCL. She created the project “Food for Thoughts,” a series of improvisational music and dance performances at the Lanificio in Rome. An expert on the Israeli dance scene, she has organized projects in Italy with artists such as Adi Salant, Adi Boutrous, Hillel Kogan, Ella Rotchield, Roy Assaf, Gil Kerer, Vertigo Dance Company, Idan Sharabi, Dor Mamalia, Michael Getman, Roni Chadash, and Lotem Regev. Since 2011, she has been the Italian agent for Shirley Esseboom and, since 2016, for Emanuel Gat Dance. She also served as a dance consultant and head of international relations from 2011 to 2015 for Milano Danza Expo, and as artistic consultant for the dance sector at Teatro Carcano in Milan for the 2015/16 season. She has been the curator of the dance season for the Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo in Rome since 2016, and assumed co-direction of the theater starting in 2020 alongside Giorgio Andriani and Antonino Pirillo. In 2017, she curated the In Movimento project at the Teatro Eliseo in Rome.
With a focus on the growth and professional development of new generations of choreographers, she serves on the juries of choreographic competitions such as the Copenhagen International Choreographic Competition, the Premio Prospettiva Danza, Valencia 10 Sentidos, and others. She is a regular guest lecturer in the Master’s program in Economics and Organization of Live Performance at Sapienza University of Rome. Active in the field of cultural policy, from 2011 to 2012 she served as coordinator of the dance committee at the Agis Lazio Regional Union; she is currently President of AIDAP within Federvivo AGIS. Since 2022, she has been a member of the Permanent Dance Committee at the Ministry of Culture (MiC) and is currently Vice President of Federvivo.