La Tarantella

La Tarantella is one of the most famous, most beloved folk dances of Italian culture. Its beauty and elegance is unsurpassed. Today, you can see the Tarantella performed by a solitary couple or in a group of couples.

Tarantella means tarantula in Italian. It is the dance against spiders and is said to have originated in Napoli and spread to Apulia, Basilicata, and Calabria in the 15th century. Apparently, the original legend tells the story of a person who had been bitten by a Mediterranean Black Widow spider and had to dance to an upbeat tempo to sweat the poison out.
When someone was bitten by a spider, the victim and the entire community would join hands, dance, leap, scream, and shake for hours to vibrant music with shrill tunes played on trumpets and fifes.

It was also believed at some point that the dance could be applied as a cure for the neurotic behavior of women or that tarantulas would be compelled to dance by the music.

The Tarantella is a dance in which the dancer and the drum player constantly try to upstage each other by dancing longer or playing faster than the other, subsequently tiring one person out first.
Regardless of its many variations to the dance and its legend, it is beautiful to watch and a celebration of authentic Italian culture.