Folklore Dances of Southern Italy

The Night of the Tarantula - La Notte della Taranta! What started out a century or so ago as Southern Italian folklore and urban legend has evolved into something much more impressive and possibly longer lasting. The pizzica taranta - the bite of the tarantula - is a wild and hypnotic dance that represents a young girl's efforts to expel the venom from her body after being bit by a spider. Accompanied by the rhythmic sound of tambourines and mandolins, the pizzica tananta has transcended time and continues to be danced throughout Southern Italy.

The Pizzica originated in Southern Italy. Many historians peg the dance's origins in the town of Galatina, which sits not far from the city of Lecce. Galatina is famous for the Church of St. Paulwhich is also known as the Chapel of the Taranta", where those who were bitten by tarantulas are said to be cured with water that flows from an age-old well inside the church.

And thus legends are made.

So what about those crazy mandolins? That intense strumming and all those tambourines? All the better to help bite-victims purge venom from their bodies: according to historians: when it was believed a maiden had been bitten by the spider, musicians went to her house and by the means of tambourines, fiddles, accordions and many other instruments started off a frenetic rhythm with the only aim to let the ill girl dance, sing, and sweat till the collapse. (you can see a video here)

Curing the bite of a tarantula might have made a good yarn back in the day, but in more modern times the pizzica is recognized as a category/style that comprises a larger body of regional dances and that almost always involves a couple (male/female). These days the traditional pizzica is danced embracing a partner with the focus now being more on courtship and less on a method to purge venom.

Originally - beginning back in 1998 - every June 29th was earmarked for the Night of the Tarantula festival. The 29^th being the Celebration of St. Paul (see above). The festival is held in the town of Melpignano. It is an entire evening dedicated to the pizzica taranta with music and dance provided by artists from all over Italy. The festival is easily the biggest and most important dedicated to the pizzica. The festival has grown from a one-day event into one that lasts several days. The 2010 edition of the Festival in fact took place from 13-28 August and drew in excess of 100,000 spectators. Future festivals are expected to be even bigger.

There has been an on-going fear that the traditions and folklore of the Puglia region risk dying out. That's a decision for time and destiny to decide but at least the pizzica taranta shows no sign of being easily forgotten.