Fuori Programma: performances, residencies, meetings, workshops, and projects

Fuori Programma is Rome’s leading summer dance festival. It was founded in 2015 as a joint initiative with the Teatro Vascello to address the city’s limited dance offerings, and since 2018 has been under the artistic direction of Valentina Marini and managed by the E.D.A. association. The year 2025 marks an important new milestone: Fuori Programma celebrates ten years of activity and is absorbed by ORBITA|Spellbound National Dance Production Center, co-directed by Valentina Marini and Mauro Astolfi and supported by the MIC and the Lazio Region. This transition represents a strategic consolidation of resources dedicated to promoting dance in the city, establishing the center as the primary point of contact and a key reference point for the artistic and audience communities in Rome and beyond.

Over the course of more than oltre dieci anni the festival has garnered widespread acclaim from audiences and industry professionals alike for its ability to showcase the most original artistic formats, balancing established and emerging artists—both national and international—while bridging the cultural divide between Rome’s suburbs and city center through a program spread throughout the city. The Festival engages various urban settings across Rome, bringing dance to vibrant, ever-changing, and exceptional venues such as the Teatro India, the courtyards of Quarticciolo, Tor Tre Teste Park, Castel Sant’Angelo, the Terrace of the Laboratorio dei Cerchi overlooking the Circus Maximus, and the Trajan Markets, to invigorate the capital’s summer tourism through international artistic offerings on par with other European capitals, while also offering tourists the chance to explore city itineraries that diverge from traditional routes. Although the host venues may change over the years, the goal is to help rediscover areas of the city through high-quality artistic offerings in a dynamic process of movement from one place to another and through the experience of events that can be approached from various perspectives. The events selected to take place in these venues aim not only to highlight their iconic architecture through artistic interventions but, above all, to initiate processes of community regeneration through performances, residencies, meetings, workshops, and special projects.

Fuori Programma promotes
unconventional tourist itineraries

Fuori Programma is a calendar of site-specific events that connects places with communities

What sets this festival apart is its focus on promoting site-specific formats alongside traditional stage productions, with performances that immersively transform the chosen venues and connect people to the places themselves. In past editions, artists such as Michela Lucenti, Mauro Astolfi, Marcos Morau, Silvia Gribaudi, Bassam Abou Diab, and DOM- have reimagined Tor Tre Teste Alessandrino Park with site-specific performances, filling the natural space with sounds and images that surprise passersby. Most of the artistic proposals are adapted to the festival’s various venues, which opt to minimize the bulk of the installations to emphasize the architectural and/or natural qualities of the environments and the expressiveness of natural light, from an ecological and aesthetic perspective.

For the past six editions, the festival has run a residency program at the Teatro Biblioteca Quarticciolo to support the creative work of emerging artists and provide them with opportunities to engage with industry professionals and audiences. Starting in 2025, with the integration of Fuori Programma into the ORBITA|Spellbound center, this initiative has been recognized by the Lazio Region as part of the ARTISTI NEI TERRITORI program promoted by the Ministry of Culture (MiC) and the Regions. This recognition takes shape through the "Artisti in Orbita" program, which expands strategies to support creative processes by hosting works-in-progress and providing theoretical guidance, technical supervision, and curatorial support. During the residencies, the public can attend open rehearsals and engage in dialogue with the artists, fostering critical perspectives that can engage with projects still in their developmental stages. With the aim of promoting an understanding of choreographic practices, the festival invites enthusiasts and the curious to explore the performing arts through: choreography workshops led by the artists on the program, and guided viewing sessions led by Teatro e Critica. Finally, an event that has become a hallmark of the festival is the collective walk that connects communities from a meeting point in the city to performance venues such as Parco Tor Tre Teste and Teatro India.

Fuori Programma supports artistic processes and the birth of temporary communities.

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