Trance and Sacred Dance

[Linchetto]

I've been reading up on trance through dancing, and found this website:

http://www.alessandrabelloni.com/spiderdance.php

Seems pretty cool and the video clips are awesome. Is this anything like Italian witchcraft practices?

[Strega Seer]

I've been reading up on trance through dancing, and found this website:

http://www.alessandrabelloni.com/spiderdance.php

Seems pretty cool and the video clips are awesome. Is this anything like Italian witchcraft practices?

Hey, you're stealing my thunder (I posted this same thing on another site the other day). Are you stalking me? ;)

I know there are traditional dances and trance enducing techniques in Italian witchcraft. But I don't know if the Tarantella is rooted in the old Craft per se. I'm sure it's pagan, no doubt, but as to its origins, well, who knows?

[Sparkles]

As far as I know, these are trance dances associated with Italian folklore.

Here is a part of the liner notes of an Italian movie which contains a description of a pizzica (a form of tarantata). Anyone see this movie?

Documentary filmmaker Edoardo Winspeare's first feature, “Pizzicata,” takes its name, its rhythm and much of its spirit from the musical tradition of his birthplace, the Salentino peninsula of Southern Italy. The pizzica is a folk dance that comes in three highly symbolic variations, each of which is seen in the film and mirrored in its tragic, romantic story. In the first, the pizzica de core, a man and woman circle each other suggestively but are never allowed to actually touch. The second, the danza della scherma, is a mock sword battle performed by two men. Whereas these two dances have their counterpart in other folk cultures, the third dance, the pizzica tarantata, is a strange ritual with an almost primitive history, dating from a time in which women suffering from a variety of mental or emotional disorders of the sort that used to be labeled "hysteria" were believed to have been bitten by a poisonous spider. Possessed by the creature, they were encouraged to perform a convulsive, exorcising dance for days at a time while praying to St. Paul for release. Every year on June 29 the tarantate of the Salento villages would re-create their possession in the town square.

Pizzicata takes place in the summer of 1943. World War II is dragging on, adding more hardship to the lives of the already struggling peasant farmers. An American plane is shot down, and the surviving pilot, Tony Marciano (Fabio Frascaro), is found and nursed back to health by Carmine Pantaleo (a fine performance by Cosimo Cinieri, the only professional actor in the cast), a widower who lives with his three daughters. Tony, who was born in a nearby village and moved to the U.S. as a child, is introduced to villagers as a distant cousin of the Pantaleos and soon finds himself falling in love not only with the country of his ancestors but with Carmine's engaged daughter Cosima (Chiara Torelli, whom the press notes say has since become a dentist, brings a proud, natural beauty to the role).

[Son of Goddess]

I freakin' love Alessandra Belloni's music!!!

[raven grimassi]

I know there are traditional dances and trance enducing techniques in Italian witchcraft. But I don't know if the Tarantella is rooted in the old Craft per se. I'm sure it's pagan, no doubt, but as to its origins, well, who knows?

The use of dance, and the enducement of trance, is certainly a part of old Witchcraft practices. In old trial transcripts we find mention of a dance called La Volta, which reportedly took place during the Sabbat.

As to the Tarantella specifically, I cannot make a case for it as a Witchcraft practice per se. However, it does seem rooted in "the Enchanted World View" of Italic paganism, and would therefore be related to Italian Witchcraft at its core.


I freakin' love Alessandra Belloni's music!!!

I have to agree. :thumbsup:

[Stasera]

I've been reading up on trance through dancing, and found this website:

http://www.alessandrabelloni.com/spiderdance.php

Seems pretty cool and the video clips are awesome. Is this anything like Italian witchcraft practices?

Not sure what may or may not apply to your practices, if any of you are looking for something in particular I am willing to help. It is fairly easy to find modern versions performed at festivals in Italy, though they are usually performed by dance troupe's. :hairred:

I have a favorite Sicilian dance full of spikes and ribbons for the Goddess Ceres. Twelve (one for each month of the year) Couples twine patterns of ribbon during the dance to represent harvest growth patterns and then unwind the ribbons at a later date ~all while performing songs , hymns and what not for the Goddess. This is one of MANY and I do mean many pagan rooted dances from Italy.

Here is a version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdhkSqDR0Ow