Valentina Marini, Director of the Rome based company Spellbound Contemporary Ballet, is our door No. 2. She describes herself as a traveler, passionate to discover new form of dance and new humans to enclose in her life. “Body communication”, “culture discovering” and “international networking and links” are her words, related very much to culture and dance. We have met Valentina in 2008 through Dirk Elwert and his former agency The Lab Art & Media. It was love at first sight.

Here you will find our questions to Valentina:

NDKD: What was your first encounter with dance?

Valentina Marini (VM): I started studying dance to imitate my best friend when I was 6 and I hated it, being addressed to the wrong class and not the best teacher. I dedicated to quitting and never have anything with dance anymore. At the age of 8, while having a painting course in a mixed activities school, I was informed that my teacher was sick, and I needed to be occupied with an alternative activity: the only spot available was in the dance room. Disappointed and not happy I was forced to stay that hour in that class and that was the beginning of a love and of a long-term friendship with the teacher. That lesson was to me the most important as it marked the importance and huge responsibility that every human in order to develop interest or destroy passions, and the same responsibility I feel, and I try to take in mind in my role of programmer in the relation with the audience.

NDKD: What does DANCE mean to you?

VM: Dance is a channel, a parallel life I can live to enlarge my family, mentioning the people I met in the world who share the same focus, same circumstances, and passion. Dance is a tool to dialogue with people from all nationalities and a room where we can mix and meet reducing distances on the cultural, geographic, and physical differences.

NDKD: What is your connection to the Norddeutsche Konzertdirektion?

VM: Norddeutsche was initially our agency in the German countries to tour Spellbound productions in Europe but in the years, it became a key institution and, mostly, a group of special people to share ideas, projects, and future goals. In the years the booking methods were changing and the relations between the players too. The system in its development needs open mind people able to follow the changes and the times with fresh ideas, common goals, and honest point of years.

NDKD: How and where are you spending Christmas this year?

VM: I will be with my family in the north, in Verona. It is the only time we meet altogether, and I will be home for a few days.

NDKD: Many thanks and Merry Christmas!