Pizzica

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Tarantula in the field

The pizzica is an originally therapeutic dance with mythical roots, which is danced today as an Italian folk dance on the Salento peninsula in southern Apulia ( Italy ) by young and old. The name comes from the Italian word "pizzicare" which means "to sting" or "bite".

history

The origin of this dance goes back to the end of the 14th century when the people of Salento worked in the countryside and lived in close contact with nature, which also housed tarantulas . Originally, the dance was considered a healing ritual after the bite of a tarantula, which threatened the population while working in the fields in the summer months.

According to stories, the local musicians rushed to the house of the bitten and played their instruments, which traditionally were violins , mandolins , guitars , flutes , harmonica and tambourines . There they played slowly at first and the victim who was bitten, who by this time was mostly already suffering from a high fever, began to dance.
The text, sung strictly in dialect , duly accompanies the poignant rhythm . With the music getting faster, the steps of the dancer get faster. The aim was to expel the poison with the force of movement and sweat. Most of the time, the family members and villagers danced with them to express their solidarity, until the victim collapsed on the floor and was hopefully healed.

Pizza dance

In the Pizzicatanz (called Pizzica Pizzica ) the pride of the Apulian women can be found as well as the courtship for them, the playing of the sexes with each other and the respect for the limits of personalities and customs. The pizzica is a courtship dance in which the handkerchief is an indispensable accessory with which the partner is animated. The waving of the handkerchief enlivens the dance, in which the male and female roles are very clearly defined. The man must express his strength and masculinity through the movement of the upper limbs, fake hugs without touching the lady, who, on the other hand, lures the partner and invites him to courtship. The pizzica is a dance that is able to convey people's attitude to life, which is why the dance is still very popular today. This important folk tradition is celebrated every year in August with the festival “ La Notte della Taranta ”.

Well-known music groups of the Pizzica

Music and film

literature

  • Johannes Birringer, Josephine Fenger (eds.): Dance and madness. = Dance and ChoreoMania (= Yearbook of Dance Research. 21). Henschel, Leipzig 2011, ISBN 978-3-89487-710-1 .
  • Ernesto De Martino: The Land of Remorse. A Study of Southern Italian Tarantism. Free Association Books, London 2005, ISBN 1-85343-784-0 .
  • Selene Pennetta: La pizzica. Viaggio tra sogni e speranze del Salento di un tempo passato. = Travel between dreams and hopes of Salento in a past time. Photo di Francesco Anglani, Selene Pennetta, Patricia Weber. Associazione Culturale Terra d'ulivi, Lecce 2011

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yesterday and today - stung by the tarantula
  2. ↑ Mauro Gioielli: Una danza chiamata pizzica (1779-1818). In: Utriculus. Bollettino trimestrale dell'Associazione culturale Circolo della Zampogna. Vol. 12, No. 46, 2008, pp. 21–24, ( digital version (PDF; 695 kB) ).
  3. ↑ Jerri Daboo: Ritual, Rapture and Remorse. A Study of Tarantism and Pizzica in Salento. Peter Lang, Oxford et al. 2010, ISBN 978-3-03911-092-6 .
  4. ^ Gianluca di Sario, Luca Lodi: Ragni velenosi del Salento e Danze di guarigione. 2003. See Roberto Pepe, Michele Fortuna, Genuario Belmonte (eds.): Tarante veleni e guarigioni. Atti del Convegno interdisciplinare Lecce 31 ottobre 2000. Ideemultimediali, Nardò 2002.
  5. ↑ www.salentomio.it/
  6. ↑ www.lanottedellataranta.it/