Rhythm is the Cure Workshop in Tuscany this August!

From August 22-29, 2010, you have the chance to experience Tuscany in a unique and life-changing way. Join internationally renowned percussionist, singer, composer, arranger and performer Alessandra Belloni on her 10th annual, soul-enhancing healing journey called Rhythm is the Cure. A few years ago I attended this workshop and it remains one of the highlights of my life. If this experience calls to you, ANSWER! Register early as it is limited to 25 students.

The Workshop
Rhythm is the Cure is a transformative week filled with intensive study, play, and joy. It is a healing workshop featuring Southern Italian ritual dances used as music and dance therapy for centuries throughout the Mediterranean. You'll learn the unique style of tambourine playing and the ancient healing trance dance of the tarantella, used to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula. (To learn more about this rich history, see my interview with Alessandra here.)

The sessions feature the ancient chants used as invocations to the healing energy of the sun, the Black Madonna (whose origins date back to Cybele, the ancient Mother Earth Goddess of female energy), the moon, and the Goddess of Water and Love (known in different parts of the world as Aphrodite, Yemanja and Madonna del Mare).

You will learn the history of this powerful percussion style which dates back to the rites of the Mother Earth Goddess Cybele. The instruments look like oversized tambourines and are more accurately called frame drums or tamburellos. These rites were originally performed mainly by women, and this experience returns us to our lost drumming tradition.

In addition to drumming, Alessandra teaches healing dance rituals:

Tammorriata - This is a beautiful, sensual dance from Naples performed with castanets to the rhythm of a large drum, called the Tammorra. The movements and rhythm are set to an African beat played in 4/4 time. This powerful dance is done during the summer rituals held in honor of the Black Madonna.

Pizzica Tarantata - The wild 6/8 rhythm of the Pizzica, played on medium size tambourines and accompanied by dance and song, was performed for centuries as an exorcism ritual that produced a trance-like state beneficial for healing many mental-health disorders and imbalances. As part of a re-enactment of this healing ritual, Alessandra will lead the participants in a circle dance where they'll create spider-like movements on the ground, releasing stress and blockages of sexual energy, as well as opening the heart and throat chakras.

Ritmo e Danza Di San Rocco (Spinning Dance) - This dance, originating in Calabria during the Middle Ages, was performed during the time of the plague to help people release the overpowering fear of death. Due to the trance-inducing movements and incessant spinning, many people enter ecstatic states during this dance, similar to the Whirling Dervish ceremonies.

Tarantella Alla Montemaranese - A fun Carnevale dance in honor of Baccus, god of wine and ecstasy, also known as Dionysius. The Tarantella alla Montemaranese is danced in a circle to a very syncopated 6/8 rhythm while wearing masks and playing castanets.

Special guest philosopher and writer Angelo Tonelli:
In addition to the intensive dance and percussion study you'll do with Alessandra each day, you'll practice meditation, visualization, and energy work with Italian writer, philosopher, theater director and shaman Angelo Tonelli during his residency. Angelo is a Jungian specialist who combines ancient Greek rituals with Tibetan traditions to conduct enlightening group interactions and exercises.

Cultural Excursion:
An excursion will take place to the stunning marble Duomo of nearby Siena to view a statue of the Black Madonna and multiple images depicting the ancient female drumming tradition. This will be followed by a pilgrimage to the Abbey of San Galgano, a spectacular ruin of a Cistercian gothic abbey, to hold a special drumming ceremony. (To see an image of the Abbey, click here.) At sunset, the group will drum while walking up the hill to the extraordinary Hermitage Montesiepi, which houses another powerful Black Madonna.


Alessandra Belloni
Alessandra Belloni is the author of Rhythm is the Cure, Southern Italian Tambourine, the result of 25 years of field research and the foremost book on the subject. She is a singer, percussionist, dancer, composer, Artist in Residence at New York’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine and co-founder and director of the Italian theatre Group I Giullari Di Piazza.

She is the only woman in the U.S. and Italy specializing in Southern Italian percussion, ritual dances and singing. She has participated for over twenty years in authentic drumming festivals in remote areas of Southern Italy held in honor of the Black Madonna and rituals of purification. Often called a "Mediterranean Volcano", Alessandra was born in Italy and is committed to preserving the rich traditions of her culture.

She has been nominated among the Best Drummers of World Percussion by Drum Magazine along with Baba Olatunji, Mickey Hart and Arthur Hull. She can be found in feature stories in the New York Times, Modern Drummer and Rhythm & Drum Magazine.

Alessandra has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious spaces, including Alice Tully Hall & New York City Ballet, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Recital Hall (New York) & Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, Caramoor Center for Music and Arts, Madison Square Garden Felt Forum, New York’s Symphony Space, Metropolitan Museum, The Cloisters, St. Mark's Church, Theatre of the United Nations (NY), World Music festival in Hawaii (Leehman Arts Center) Teatro Castro Alves, Bahia, Brazil - Teatro SESC Ipiranga in San Paolo, Cultural Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, Cleveland Palace Theatre & Cleveland Museum of Art with Dancing Wheels Monterey World Music festival, World Festival of Sacred Music (Los Angeles) Epcot Center (Walt Disney World), Universal Studios and UCLA in Los Angeles, YALE University, Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., Kennedy Center (Washington DC) Field Museum Park in Chicago.

The Villa
The workshop is held at La Chiara di Prumiano, six centuries old in the Chianti region of Tuscany, near Siena. Even if you can’t translate the villa’s website, prumiano.it, from Italian, I recommend looking at the photographs. I have stayed at this villa, and it is wonderful! Spacious and decorated with tile floors and dark, polished wood, I entered the villa and felt the pressures of my regular life slide off my shoulders. Each bedroom, whether single, double or triple, has modern bathrooms and is beautifully appointed.

The food at Prumiano can only be described as spectacular. Breakfasts are continental and completely satisfying (which is not true everywhere you go). Lunches and dinners are feasts that the kitchen staff creates from fresh ingredients grown on the villa property. They pride themselves on serving cuisine that is beneficial to the body and mind and tastes like heaven. These wonderful meals are eaten at long tables under a large, vine-covered pergola on the patio.

Prumiano offers a swimming pool and stables on the grounds. Imagine horseback riding in the Tuscan hills….I’ve done it, and it’s unforgettable. The villa also offers shiatsu and ayurvedic massage. In addition, you’ll find spas, mudbaths and a lake nearby.

For additional information, contact tuscanyworkshop@aol.com.

Learn more about this special workshop, including prices and registration by downloading this brochure. Just click on the orange Menu button and select Download Doc. Be sure to download all 4 pages:

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Daughters of Cybele Celebrate the Spring Equinox at St. John the Divine in NYC

Women’s voices, drums, sweat and passion rang in the 2010 Spring Equinox on March 20 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The Daughters of Cybele are billed as “a unique ensemble of women honoring the healing power of the female energy”, and they live up to every word of it. The Daughters are the result of a long-held dream by Alessandra Belloni, recognized as one of the world’s finest percussionists and an expert on Southern Italian dance and drum rituals.


Cybele is the Mother Earth Goddess from Turkey after whom Belloni chose to name her troupe. She thrives on the physical and spiritual strength conveyed by women over the centuries in chants and dance. This strength, says Belloni, is what women today need to rediscover and make their own. This strength can be drawn from a vital connection with the Earth and Nature’s forces.

Saturday’s performance took place on the altar of St. James Chapel, with its ceiling-high stone carved marble figures as a breathtaking backdrop. The seven women dressed in flowing red and white costumes raised their voices and drums, performing centuries old healing and work chants from Italy, France, Spain and Brazil. Also included were compositions by Belloni, drawing from her profound life experiences and global musical influences.



The songs themselves spoke deeply to the whole spectrum of feminine experience, whether honoring powerful Goddesses or laying low in the desolation of betrayal. One of Belloni’s works, Requiem Per Mamma Elvira, is a memorial of her mother’s passing and honors the unconditional love of the Universal Mother and rebirth of all things. Another of Belloni’s compositions, Figlia Di Oxun, portrays the Brazilian shamanic journey in honor of the Goddess Oxun and the Black Madonna. In a more lighthearted vein, the Brazilian chant, Canto Da Sereja, is sung to coax the mermaids out of the sea to play in the sand.

Besides Belloni, the members of the ensemble include Susan Aquila on the acoustic and electric Viper 6-string violin, dance, shakers and vocals; Olympia Avignone on African percussion, frame drums, bells and chekere; Lorraine Calculli on frame drums, tambourine and shakers; Allison Scola vocals, clarinet, tambourine, shakers and ritual dance; Eve Sicular on drumset, dumbeck, frame drums, shakers; Cynthia Enfield provided narration, vocals, shakers and ritual dance.


Members of the ensemble performed traditional dances and sometimes encouraged the audience to join them. It was especially in those moments, dancing and whirling in the Chapel aisle amid the chants and beats of frame drums, shakers and tamburello that the evening hit its emotional highpoints. Dancing the steps, hearing the words and feeling the connection to every woman who ever lived and will live was the rare gift of the Daughters of Cybele.

Alessandra Belloni conducts workshops throughout the world on the feminine power of drumming and dancing. Every August, you can journey with her to Tuscany for her signature workshop, Rhythm is the Cure. This year, the dates are August 22 – 29. To learn more, visit alessandrabelloni.com.

Spider Dance Weaves Its Web at Theater For the New City, NYC

Foreground: Alessandra Belloni, Fran Sperling, Joe Deninzon and Antonio Fini.


Antonio Fini as Dionysius, Francesca Silvano, Greta Campo and Katerina Ogar.

Alessandra Belloni and the performance troupe, I Giullari di Piazza, have proven once again that creativity and passion is the best form of entertainment. This new production of Spider Dance is full of energy, song, history, pathos, movement and color.

Spider Dance tells the story of Arachne, the skilled weaver who challenges the goddess Athena to a weaving contest and wins. In the ensuing chaos, Athena transforms Arachne into a spider to weave her web forever. This myth found its way into the Southern Italian psyche as the mythical bite of the tarantula that inflicts women and can only be cured by the rhythm and dancing of the frantic 12/8 beat of the Pizzica. The god Dionysus, the plague of the Dark Ages, the Christianization of Pagan rites and the Black Madonna all figure significantly in the development of this production. The musicians are shamans, frame drums hold mystical healing power, fire purifies and dancers whirl and writhe to the madness of the tarantula’s bite.

For those who have seen the show before, changes to this production are noteworthy.
For example, when Belloni first strides onto the stage as Athena, her robe is now deeply slit up both sides, revealing the full length of her legs when certain poses are struck. This change is palpable, as it silently and emphatically communicates Athena’s sexual strength and fierce pride.

The narrator is now a woman, Cynthia Enfield, who further emphasizes the simmering feminine energy that is central to the story. Enfield not only educates the audience and clarifies the story, but often joins in the dancing and action on the stage, blurring the boundary between Greek chorus and the actors. As she moves in and out from the periphery of the stage, her presence is welcome and anticipated as a key player and facilitator.

One of the show’s highlights, Antonio Fini’s dance of fire to the haunting Requiem, has also evolved. This time, one of the female dancers is on stage with Fini at the beginning of the scene, dancing around him as he kneels with his back to the audience before the portrait of the Black Madonna. When the woman leaves the stage, Fini turns toward us with the bowls of fire in each hand on the end of chains and the Dance of Fire begins. The audience is spellbound throughout. To watch a video of the Fire Dance, click here.

The bridge between these ancient stories and modern times is achieved through the addition of hip-hop dancer Michael Garrett. At the close of the show, Garrett springs onto the stage from the audience in sweats and sneakers and performs a mesmerizing combination of hip-hop, break and street dancing to the wild Pizzica rhythms. Garrett’s addition to the cast underscores Belloni’s lifelong paen to the healing power of this form of dance therapy. Her own words say it best: “Young people can have fun and achieve ecstasy without taking Ecstasy… I think women today, and men sometimes, still have (this) syndrome and need to cut free from the web of society. So I think (this) show will always be part of my mission. How can we help, as artists, the people of today identify their web? How can they cut it thru music and dance?”

This production has been extended to Saturday, January 23, 2010:

Date: January 23, 2010
Time: 8:00 pm
Location: Theater for the New City
155 First Ave, near 10 East 10th Street
Tickets: $20 or $15 for seniors, students and children


Alessandra Belloni and Joe Deninzon on electric violin.


Francesca Silvana, Alessandra Belloni and Joe Deninzon.

Voyage of the Black Madonna - Concert Dedicated to Mother Earth

On December 6, 2009, the laments and celebrations of the Voyage of the Black Madonna rang in St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in NYC. The performance was a showcase of some of the music and dance from the full theatrical production. Evocative music, whirling, colorful costumes and interpretative dance told the story of the poet Virgil and his encounters with different faces of the Black Madonna. Written by Alessandra Belloni and Dario Bollini, the story is based on various legends from Southern Italy. In this version, Virgil is awakened to understand the essential nature of Mother Earth through his experiences with seven Black Madonnas.

The show includes original music by renowned composer, arranger and musician John T. LaBarbera. La Barbera, Belloni and Bollini spent many years researching the origins and celebrations of Black Madonnas around the world, and the music that drives those celebrations. In Voyage of the Black Madonna, the rhythms originate in Italy, Africa, Brazil and the Gypsy musicians of the Basque Regions of France and Spain. During the show La Barbera expertly played various stringed instruments, including mandolin and battante. His versatility and musicianship gave the impression that there was an entire string section, instead of just him. Susan Eberenz‘s flute, piccolo and recorder added just the right amount of brightness and flow to the pieces. Entertaining us on violin was none other than Sebastian, Eberenz and La Barbera’s son who, at 11 years old, is already a performing veteran. As the show contained highlights from the full production, the narration read by Dolores Deluise was essential to the audience’s understanding of the onstage events.

It was Belloni’s clear, strong mezzosoprano voice and incomparable frame drumming that guided the production. Surrounded by her many frame drums, she played the various Black Madonna characters who enlighten Virgil as to the true nature of Mother Earth. Virgil was played by dancer Mark Mindek, whose flowing movements told the story of seeking, learning and finally, comprehension. Mindek, who is normally the stilt dancer for Belloni and La Barbera’s theatrical company, I Giulliari di Piazza, still gave the impression of towering above us all even though his feet were on the ground this time.

Special mention must be given to the costumes. The deep, rich colors of purple, turquoise, reds, yellows and blues added a sumptuous feel to the dark, heavy wood of the church. It was the combination of these flowing colors, expressive movement and soaring music that made it a unique experience.

I Giulliari Di Piazza Celebrates of 30 Years Together

Pictured: John T. La Barbera, Alessandra Belloni, Antonio Fini, Joe Denizon.

On Friday, October 30, 2009, Symphony Space in New York City rang with selections from 30 years of shows performed all over the world by I Giulliari Di Piazza. The show was sponsored by the World Music Institute and was nearly sold out. Founded by Alessandra Belloni and John T. La Barbera, I Giulliari performs the ancient musical folklore of Southern Italy. Dedicated to preserving and performing authentic Southern Italian music, dance and theater dating from the 13th century, the troupe also creates contemporary works based on these rich traditions.

Friday night’s performance was a whirl of drumming, color, stilt dancing, guitars, mandolins, flutes and voices. The troupe performed selections from their many shows throughout the years, including Dance of the Ancient Spider, Voyage of the Black Madonna and Techno Tarantella.

Alessandra Belloni proved once again why she is considered by many to be one of the world’s premier percussionists. Her hand was often just a blur as she played her tambourines and frame drums, usually while simultaneously singing, dancing and directing the action on stage.

John La Barbera, the group’s musical director, played several instruments throughout the performance, including guitar and mandolin. A veteran arranger and composer, one of the evening’s highlights was his own MamboTangoTella, played with a decidedly gypsy edge.

One of the evening’s special guests was percussionist and tenor, Nando Citarella. Citarella is a virtuoso of the tammorriata dance and drumming style. Citarella became one of Belloni’s percussion teachers after meeting on the beach in Calabria many years ago. Citarella had been taught by his aunt when he was 6 years old and has been perfecting the technique ever since. His clear, haunting tenor voice mesmerized the audience.

Gordon Gottlieb was the other special guest, a percussionist with a varied career. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Stevie Wonder, Miles Davis, and recorded with Michael Jackson, Sting and Steely Dan.

Joe Denizon, a Russian with and Italian soul, played his famous electric violin. Known as the Jimmy Hendrix of the electric violin, Denizon managed to play complex pieces while rolling around on his back during the performance of the Pizzica.

Vincent Scialla drummed the foundation for the complicated rhythms going in all directions, while Steve Gorn and Susan Eberenz added flute, piccolo and recorder to round out the arrangements.

One of the elements that set this night apart was the easy banter among the musicians, usually Belloni, La Barbera and Citarella. Their reminiscing drew the audience into a very personal space, and we forgot for a moment that we were sitting in a theater. It felt more like sitting around a table with our friends telling us their favorite stories about how they met and started out.

Dancing and theater has always been an essential part of the troupe’s identity, and Friday night was no exception. The athleticism and acrobatics of this demanding style were on full display. Antonio Fini dances with the Martha Graham Ensemble and the Whitney Hunter Dance Company. As a featured player with I Giulliari, Fini celebrates his Calabrian origins as Dionysus, the Devil and a Tarantato. Fran Sperling brought the Spider Woman to life with a fierce compassion. Mark Mindek defied gravity dancing on stilts, personifying in turn the Plague of the Dark Ages and the unfettered reveling of present-day Brazilian celebration.

The Chants of Southern Italy Come to the Mehanata Club, NYC

This article also appears on our Italian Journal page.

On June 11, 2009, The Mehanata Club on Ludlow Street reverberated with the rituals, chants and work songs of ancient Southern Italy. I Giulliari di Piazza, a music and dance troupe dedicated to the preservation and rejuvenation of the healing drumming tradition to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula, worked its magic on the enthusiastic crowd. Alessandra Belloni’s clear, bell-toned singing voice soared as she whirled, danced and played various frame drums, at often astonishing speeds.
John T. LaBarbera, co-founder of I Giulliari and Belloni’s musical collaborator for some thirty years, brought his profound understanding of the passionate rhythms to the fore. On both guitar and mandolin, LaBarbera’s articulation expanded the ancient melodies and made them accessible to contemporary listeners.

Joe Deninzon, known as the Jimi Hendrix of the electric violin, played at a sometimes dizzying pace while whirling on his back on the dance floor.

Along with Belloni, Vinnie Scialla played percussion and his driving, relentless beats laid the perfect rhythmic backdrop for the ensemble.

Antonio Fini, the fire dancer in Belloni’s show, Techno Tarantella, danced many of the pieces with Belloni, with audience members or alone. A member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Fini performed with an almost fearless quality of blending choreography from ancient times to the Renaissance to Modern.



Audience participation was the watchword for the show, and many of us couldn’t resist the siren call of the spider dance. Despite the venue’s small size and the rising temperature on the dance floor, the audience improvised its own dance steps and joined in the exhilaration. At the end of a raucous Tarantella Pizzica and Belloni’s announcement that the show was over, the audience chanted, “One More Song!” until she gave in.


To learn more about Alessandra Belloni, listen to our Podcasts with her or read the podcast transcripts on our Italian Journal page.

To learn more about John T. LaBarbera, listen to all 3 of our Podcasts with him or read the podcast transcripts on our Italian Journal page.

Alessandra Belloni Part 2: Techno Tarantella

This is a transcript of the podcast appearing on our Podcast Page.

Carolyn: Techno Tarantella is a show that blends myth, reality, fevered dance and music, fire, gods and goddesses. In recent years it’s been performed at various New York City venues, including the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. This show is being developed and nurtured by Alessandra Belloni, a world-renowned percussionist, singer, dancer, composer and arranger. The Techno Tarantella was born from another of her shows, called the Dance of the Ancient Spider.

Alessandra: It’s been a long journey. I began to visualize a show about the myth of the spider bite, of the tarantula, in 1995 and I was commissioned by Lincoln Center Community Arts Project to do a show at Alice Tully Hall. I said, OK, this would be the time to do it because I saw it in a grand style. So I wrote the show called The Dance of the Ancient Spider and it premiered at Alice Tully Hall.

So I wrote that story back then, and how the bacchante, the women at that time became possessed by the Dionysus god to release all of the poison out of the body and it had to do with the depression of young women connected to the myth of Aracne.

In that show, we used only folk music and acoustic music, and I kind of told the story of a woman who became a tarantata and how she was healed by the dance and the rhythm. So we did that show for about 4 years on and off, and it was the title of that CD, Taranata, Dance of the Ancient Spider. But then I started to listen to this really interesting electronic music fused with folk music. The way I used to do this was very folk music, beautifully done, but very much of an elite audience that would never grab young people, on a bigger level.

Carolyn: So has the change to techno music changed your audience?

Alessandra: I used more of the techno music and modern dance, now it grabs more of a younger audience.

Carolyn: So how did this change begin?

Alessandra: I would say starting in the year 2002, 2003 I was in Brazil, I was performing in a club. A friend of mine owns this fantastic place called Grazie a Dio in Sao Paulo. And he has a very good DJ working there and very good sound people. So, as we finished the performance, we ate and then we came back to the club to dance and I heard this really cool music. It sounded very familiar and I said, “Wait a second, I heard this before!” and it was my music they had recorded in the concert but the DJ put a techno feel to it.

Carolyn: So it’s your music done in a techno style?

Alessandra: Yes. And then I went , “Wow, what is that?” and he said “It’s you!” “Really? That sounds really good!” So we started talking about this project in Brazil, you know, like, we’ve got to do this techno thing and that was back, the end of 2002, beginning of 2003.

I went back, then I did a show 2005 for Carnival in Brazil and this guy has a group that is well known for electronic music, improvised on stage with acoustic music on top. He asked me to be a guest in his show, and I said “I have this dream of one day doing a show called Techno Tarantella” and he goes “I don’t know what it is, but let’s try it.” So we did. I started singing and they started improvising and they put all the technology in it and it was beautiful I thought “Wow, this can really work”. The whole audience was dancing, my voice, my drum and everything was looping then I stopped playing and singing and I started dancing and I said “I can really do that. I can have a machine reproduce what I do, and dance.”

Carolyn: Since then, Alessandra’s show, Techno Tarantella, has developed and showcased the talents of certain artists she met along the way.

Alessandra: Originally the group was founded by me and John LaBarbera, the guitarist.

I owe a lot to Joe Deninzon, who is a violinist from Russia. He has fantastic training of classical, jazz and rock. His band is a jam band and he’s known around the country as Jimi Hendrix of the violin. So when I first got this idea of the Techno Tarantella I thought to ask him and he was totally into it. He the one who put the most time into developing those sounds because he’s specialized on all the effects. So he created all of those amazing sounds. I think that’s why the show works, because it’s not my usual ensemble that has guitars, violins, flutes, mandolins, and all that. I don’t think it needs all that. I think Joe, with all of the effects is great and a lot of percussion. Percussion’s very important.

Carolyn: Well, what I remember about Joe is that during the Pizzica, he was dancing and he was on his back playing this incredibly fast, complicated rhythm, rolling around on the floor.

Alessandra : I think it’s spectacular. Joe Deninzon, yeah, he’s the man.

So the other person that is important in this is the actor that plays the narrator, Ivan Thomas. He’s a baritone, and he’s part Italian, part African American and he’s an opera singer who has toured all over the world. And his main role was in Porgy and Bess. When we met 20 years ago he was doing a lot of opera but because he feels so close to Italy because of his grandmother was Italian from Siena, he loved working with us, always. And then he got cast to be in River Dance, and he was the only live singer that they had, everyone was on playback in River Dance. The singers, not the band. The band was amazing. So he gave me a lot of input about how to evolve a show that has the potential of River Dance.

Carolyn: Another artist who brings Techno Tarantella to life is Antonio Fini. Dionysius, the Greek god of ecstasy and wine, plays a large part in the myth and in the Techno Tarantella. Antonio plays Dionysius and his breathtaking dance of fire is one of the show’s highlights.

Alessandra : Antonio I met here in NY. He was studying at the Martha Graham school, the ensemble, and he’s from Calabria and he’s a really gifted dancer from the South of Italy and the region I love the most, Calabria. His main training is modern dance. And when I started to audition dancers for the show, when he came, I just saw what he did and I said “This is it! It’s him!” But I didn’t know what else he could do. Then he told me “I dance with fire and I do this, and I do that” and I know we share a very similar spiritual quest in our life. He’s very young but he’s got an incredible mind.

So I kind of took a leap of faith because he wasn’t a choreographer but a young dancer with a lot of gifts. But because we both believe in many things and we know these dances in Italy were done for the solstice and were done in the woods as gatherings. Sometimes people were accused of witchcraft, and they were not witches but were someone in the power of the fires, the elements, of the sun god. We both agreed that these scenes had to be part of the show.

Carolyn: So Techno Tarantella not only signals a change in the musical style of the story of the ancient spider, but also a change in the breath of the show.

Alessandra : It was no longer just the story of the tarantella, as I had done before, and the woman, the tarantata. It had to embrace all the elements that are a part of our magic ritual ceremonies. So that’s why the show has all those elements.

Carolyn: Let’s go through the different elements of the show.

Alessandra : It starts with the myth of Aracne and how this young princess was such a skilled weaver and how Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom is very jealous of the young princess and all the nymphs admire her. I chose to be Athena who challenges her, because the relationship being older and younger woman, the crone and the maiden. And Athena accepts the challenge to the weaving contest and Aracne wins. Athena gets very angry, destroys the linen and Aracne, out of humiliation, hangs herself, and Athena transforms her into a spider. That’s the prologue part.

And in the show, very important to have Athena have a mask to represent the gods. A lot of the things I do go back to the ancient Greek, Roman theater and some of it is Renaissance. So using the narrator as the one character out of the story and describes the story. That’s typical way of actor and chorus. And then I chose to use masks again following that kind of style and my dream was always to have an aerial dancer that could be the spider. So of course I’m really glad I met Fran Sperling as the aerial dancer. So when I transform Aracne the aerial dancer comes out and she used the net, which was amazing. So she hangs herself from the net and it’s very powerful because I directed her a little bit but not much. I just said, please work with spider moves and feeling of hanging and killing herself. Which she did.

The show goes on how the girls are affected by the suicide mania because they are not free. So I use that piece during those scenes; the transformation to the spider. And it’s a sad song of a young girl that dies of love.

In the first part of the show we show also the Middle Ages, death coming, the plague, the stilt dancer. I think he’s amazing. I couldn’t believe what he was doing. But that’s the first half. The ending of Act I is a dance that comes from the Renaissance called Bailo di Sfezania, where people dress like devils and dance to exorcise the fear of death and contra malochhio, against the evil eye.

In the Renaissance it was a very popular thing and people dressed like that in the streets to do this dance. The awkward movements using the fingers in the position of the horns. And to do that dance I studied prints from the Renaissance, then I gave it to Antonio and another dancer, and then became a modern dance choreography.

Carolyn: So the roots of that Renaissance dancing is in this Tarantella?

Alessandra: It’s all based in authentic tradition. What I always do is look at the books, the prints, and study them and then direct and come up with the choreography.

Then the beginning of Act 2 is rebirth; the hope of light coming after darkness. That’s why we began first with the sun chant which is so much part of our tradition. It’s a very powerful healing chant and then the fire. And that song for the fire was the song I wrote for my mother and that helped me heal my pain but also, when we do it I really feel her and I feel the meaning of it, the rebirth. That she’s not really dead, and that fire brings her back to life.

Then we talk about how the people suffer from the tarantismo and the woman tries to win the love of the young man and then the group dances that develops. And I used those songs from Puglia that are used for the cure that are really strong. And Antonio did a great staging of the madness scene when they are all going crazy together. And the spider is there, still biting in the subconscious mind. And at the end we did the techno Pizzica which I think works really well because it gets you going. It’s much more powerful I think than the acoustic one that I’ve done for 27 years.

I like things that are much more wild. And Tarantella is much more wild. That’s why I think it has a great potential. It has the flavor of some Cirque du Soliel. I have a vision. If I had, even a quarter million dollars, I could have a lot of dancers flying at some point, so when they are bitten, they go up and they’re flying.

And I conceived the show also with a real group of Arabs coming, when the Moors meet the Christians. In the show you saw, because of our low budget, we have to do everything ourselves. All I know is I was always changing masks and costumes. Who am I next?

Carolyn: Although Techno Tarantella is steeped in myth, many of the rituals it depicts are still with us.

Alessandra: The spirit of Dionysius never died. He is still celebrated in Brazil more than anywhere. But it’s also celebrated in New Orleans, Caribbean in Carnival. That’s why I wanted to leave the audience with a blessing of love because once you celebrate Dionysus, you are much more in ecstasy.

So I see it as a spectacle that has a lot of possibilities. A message of healing through music and dance and drumming and with a multi-cultural cast, and with a message of peace. Because I think the world is going crazy. What I would like to convey is that young people can have fun and have a Techno Tarantella ecstasy without taking ecstasy. We are all one when it comes to rhythm and dance. The Islam, the Christian, Brazilians, Africans, we all worship Dionysus or Allah or you name it, it’s the same God.

Carolyn: To watch video clips fo the Techo Tarantella performance, go to the Essence of Italy links page and click on Essence of Italy at YouTube.

To learn more, visit alessandrabelloni.com.

This is Carolyn Masone at essenceofitaly.net. Thanks for listening!

Alessandra Belloni Part 1 - Rhythm is the Cure - The Healing Power of the Tarantella Spider Dance

This is a transcript of the podcast appearing on our Podcast Page.
Carolyn: The image of a spider weaving its web means different things to different people. For some, the meaning is sinister, as in ‘weaving a web of lies’. For others, a web evokes connection, support and communication, as in the internet, which we call the World Wide Web.

The spider and its web have been active symbols in the human mind for thousands of years. The concept of a person trapped in the web of society’s rules, unable to free themselves, has been recognized, contemplated and remedied in different ways throughout the ages using myth, literature, music, song and dance. Many times, these remedies were rituals that allowed the affected person an essential outlet for the expression of their trapped emotions. This ritual provided a limited, protected time during which that person could freely express themselves without restraint. It was understood by all that after the ritual, the person would return to society and follow its rules, until those trapped emotions built up once again, and another freeing ritual was needed.

There is an ancient Southern Italian dance called the Tarantella. This is not the Tarantella we usually think of, a tune we often hear at weddings. Instead, this Tarantella is a music and dance ceremony connected to the mythical bite of the tarantula spider. The musical instruments used in the ceremony are violins, mandolins and most notably, the tambourine or frame drum. The dance is a frenzied, wild, spinning expression of repressed emotion.

A person affected by the mythical bite of the spider is called a tarantata. And the condition caused by the bite is called tarantismo.

Alessandra Belloni has devoted her life to the exploration and rejuvenation of this Tarantella. Alessandra is a world-renowned percussionist whose talents include singing, dancing, composing and arranging. She has published a book called Rhythm is the Cure, Southern Italian Tambourine, complete with an instructional DVD, published by Mel Bay. Alessandra is a REMO Signature Series artist who has designed her own line of tambourines, also called frame drums.

Alessandra, let’s talk about the origins of the myth of the spider and how it connects to repression and ultimately, to release. The Greek myth tells the story of Aracne, a talented princess who challenges a goddess.

Alessandra: It starts with the myth of Aracne and how this young princess was such a skilled weaver of ancient Greece. Italy was part of ancient Greece, called Magna Grecia. And how Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom is very jealous of the young princess being such a skilled weaver and all the nymphs admire her. Athena accepts the challenge to the weaving contest and Aracne wins. Athena gets very angry, destroys the linen and Aracne out of humiliation, hangs herself.

Carolyn: But Athena takes pity on Aracne at this point.

Alessandra: Athena transforms her into a spider.

Carolyn: So Aracne continues to weave forever, as a spider. Now, the myth continues with the nymphs, who so admired Aracne. They are heartbroken by the events and sink into a deep depression and begin committing suicide. The people call upon Athena for relief. Athena tells them that the nymphs have been bitten by the spider, causing the depression, and the only cure is a frenzied dance ritual to expel the poison and heal them.

Alessandra: There’s a lot in that myth of young woman-older woman relation, the jealousy, the competition, the web, how we weave our web. And then this fear of not being accepted and then committing suicide. It spoke to me in many different ways. Now that I’m older, I think it’s the archetype of our subconscious mind so we all connect to spiders in different ways. Some of us love them, and some people don’t and they have arachnophobia!

Carolyn: Alessandra, what introduced you to this myth and its meaning?

Alessandra: Back in 1981-82 I met Glen Velez, the drummer who was my first tambourine student. As a gift he gave me this book that I’d been searching for a long time, and at that time it was out of print, called La Terra Del Rimorso, the Land of Rimorse. To me it’s like a bible for who wants to study this, of the myth of the spider. From the myth of Aracne and how they studied the tarantate in the early 60’s, late 50’s. So it gives you all the history behind this form of madness, malady, ritual that was still popular then in Puglia. I studied that book many, many times, I read it over and over again, I almost memorized the book by now. Ernesto di Martino is the author.

Carolyn: One of the messages of the myth is recognition, compassion and restoration of those suffering from various forms of cultural repression.

Alessandra: In the Greek times, the young girls were repressed by the male dominated society and they were not allowed to express their sexuality. They became afflicted by this. All I know is that they suffered from a malady that came out as an explosion of euphoria. They said they were possessed by the god Dionysus. If you read Euripides Bacchantes, you read there are all these women, the Maenades, running around wild. And they were allowed to do these crazy things, orgiastic rites and more, even devouring men. Incredible scene of the Bacchante, because they were possessed by the god Dionysus, the god of ecstasy and wine.

Carolyn: So, putting this in its cultural context, marriages were arranged so the women often did not marry the men they loved.

Alessandra: Young women not being allowed to be free and express themselves sexually, psychologically, artistically, everything. The myth of Aracne embodies a lot of things. The web is a big thing, it could be anything, but it’s mainly sexual. Dance comes from that. But I think it embodies other things that are part of that. The suffering that caused people to go crazy and sometimes to commit suicide.

Carolyn: So this kind of wild dance ritual, sanctioned by society, acted as a safety valve to calm depression and prevent suicide?

Alessandra: Exactly. And to not be accused of witchcraft.

Carolyn: Because they could have been killed for witchcraft.

Alessandra: That’s why it’s a healing trance dance. Because the women in the trance danced, and healed themselves. And thru the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, that’s how the dance evolved. And no one accused them of anything because they were bitten by the tarantula. They were free to express who they were, because they were sick; they suffered from the poison of the spider.

Carolyn: This myth and its remedy have taken various forms over the centuries. In the Middle Ages, during the time of the Black Plague and the Crusades, people suffered from the fear of disease and death.

Alessandra: It goes on into the Middle Ages and the meeting with the Islamic world in the time of the crusades. That’s when we first know that the Tarantella evolved as we know it today, with the spinning. I learned by being part of a Sufi community that we have almost the same elements, Christians and Islams have the same things. Yet, we’re in the crusades right now. We feel that we are at the end of the world and it was the same then.

Carolyn: And certain dances during the Renaissance also have their roots in the Tarantella.

Alessandra: In the Renaissance it was a very popular thing and people dressed like that in the streets to do this dance. Where the people danced like devils and danced to exorcise the fear of death and contra malochhio, against the evil eye. The awkward movements using the fingers in the position of the horns. It’s all based on authentic tradition.

Carolyn: So now we fast-forward to more recent history, and we find that areas of Puglia and Calabria have continued this Tarantella ritual, in honor of the Black Madonna. This brings us back full circle to the work of Ernesto di Martino and his book, Land of Rimorse. In the 1950’s and ‘60’s, he studied the tarantate and how their families handled the situation.

Alessandra: The ritual of the tarantate happens, after a person was bitten and they found out it was the tarantula, they went into a state of mind. They couldn’t talk or move or do anything unless the musicians came and played the cure. They started spinning and stomping and doing the spider dance on the floor, in their home for 3 days and 3 nights.

And the shamans, who were the musicians, had to find the right melody. And the tambourine had the biggest part of that. Because the tambourine, being the accents released the body and the body started to move, to free the poison, symbolically speaking. Even though for a long time people did believe it was the poison that did that. But the families did know that it was a disease, that it was not the poison. But the excuse was the poison of the spider that bit them during the hot days that they were working in the fields.

So when they were cured after 3 days and 3 nights in their home, all the tarantate gathered on June 29 in this little church called San Paolo di Galentina in Puglia and went completely crazy in the church, screaming, running, seeing the spider. And after that ritual they would come out of the church, healed, for another year, with no memory of what happened to them.

Carolyn: Alessandra continues this ritual in her healing workshops, called Rhythm is the Cure. Her workshops are offered all over the world, for a day, a weekend or a week.

Alessandra: My lifetime research on the myth of the tarantula and how the women are still suffering from what I think is called the tarantismo, the mental disorder that is normally a form of depression or sometimes suicide mania. I think women today, and men sometimes, still have that syndrome and need to cut free from the web of society. So I think that show will always be part of my mission. How can we help, as artists, the people of today identify their web? How can they cut it thru music and dance?

Carolyn: Alessandra holds a Rhythm is the Cure workshop in a gorgeous villa in Tuscany, Italy for a week every August. She uses Southern Italian folk dances and rituals as a joyous form of music and dance therapy. She teaches drumming and ancient Neapolitan chants used for healing and to honor the Black Madonna. She teaches how to release stress, unblock energy, open your heart and throat chakras and achieve deep relaxation.

To learn more, visit www.alessandrabelloni.com.