About
Valentina Turcu is a classically trained ballet soloist and choreographer who is today one of the most esteemed and prominent artists in Slovenia and neighbouring countries. Her creations extend beyond choreography and stage movement design for operas, dramas, concerts, and ballet evenings in terms of genre and style, ranging from multi-award-winning full-length ballets to contemporary one-acts and choreographic miniatures. Her oeuvre, with over 130 created or co-created ballets, drama and opera productions, testifies not only to her epochal creative potential but also to her versatile and exceptionally flexible theatrical intuition, which has recently been confirmed in her highly successful directing of drama performances.
Her inexhaustible desire for perfection and new challenges in terms of developing her own movement virtuosity led her to the prestigious Béjart Ballet in Lausanne, where, under the watchful mentorship of the legendary choreographer and ballet master Maurice Béjart, she developed her unique choreographic handwriting and dance expressiveness, performing in numerous Béjart choreographies.
Media & Awards:
Valentina Turcu has received numerous prestigious awards for her artistic achievements, including the Pie and Pina Mlakar Award, the Croatian Drama Artists Award for the best performance and choreography in 2019 for her directorial debut A Streetcar Named Desire (produced by HNK Varaždin), which was performed at the prestigious Gavella Evenings Drama Festival, the Prešeren Fund Award (2018), the Glazer Charter (2017), the Orlando Award (2016) presented by the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the “Latvijas Gāze” Award for the ballet Romeo and Juliet, which was declared the best theatre production of the 2014/2015 season in Latvia, and she was also nominated for the Kyoto Prize for innovations in dance theatre that address all of humanity with their values and positions. In 2023, Valentina Turcu was awarded the Gabriela Taub Darvaș Award for her outstanding achievements in choreographic art in Romania.