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boredom of dancing alone. Love and pleasure are apparent throughout
this dance. Each motion, each gesture, is made with the most voluptuous
gracefulness. Animated by the accompanying mandolins, tambourines
and castanets, the woman tries, by her rapidity and liveliness,
to excite the love of her partner, who, in his turn, endeavors
to charm her with his agility, elegance, and demonstrations of
tenderness. The two dancers would unite, separate, return, fly
into each other's arms, again bound away, and in their unlike
gestures alternately express love, coquetry and inconstancy.
How long has it been around, I don't really know,
but the earliest writings I can find mention the St. Vitus
dance in 1374 and nothing until Jean Coaralli,
who in 1839 produced the ballet called "La Tarentule."Madame
Michau (c.1840s) introduced the dance to the dancing
public in 1844 (this version was often used in ballets.)
However, it was said that: "to dance the Tarantella in ballroom
circles, as they danced it at Naples would be
impossible" and going on to say "Therefore, when Madame
Michau introduced it in London in 1844, she made
a selection of only about eight steps or figures, that had great
mastery among the higher classes there."
There are three sources for
the origination of this dance.
1) One is the
bite of the Tarantula, Arania
or Apulian Spider (= Lycosa Tarantula) or Wolf
Spider (Tarantula being most popular.) The dance was used
apparently to cure the bite of the spider (a cure if you will.)
The bite of the spider was presumed to make one hallucinate. The
town's folk will play music while the afflicted person would dance
nonstop, to ward off the spider's venom.
2) Others say
when bitten, the Tarantula spiders venom, would make the person
uncontrollably move about as if dancing. In 1374 (other reports
say 1021), an "Outbreak of Dancing in the Middle
Ages " referred to as the St. Vitus Dance
that went unexplained until the realization that these dancers
had been bitten by the Tarantula spider. (1374 - Aachen, Germany-dancing
madness, lasting hours, believed due to the bite of the Tarantula
Spider, also considered to be first dance
marathon in history.)
3) The Third
story is of the town's named Toranto and Tarentum
, its supposed origin. Women working in the fields, who would
be bit by the Tarantula spider would dance off the venom. It is
said that having been found that profuse perspiration, which seemed
to force the poison out through the pores of the body, was the
only remedy for the bite of this venomous spider, and as exercise
was their chief means of inducing perspiration. (Many believed
back then that the this Spider's bite to be deadly, and during
those times, there was no anti venom available.)
St. Vitus Dance...
The Religious story says (Nuremberg Chronicles-1493);
"young people of Saxony were dancing in the churchyard of
St. Magnus . There were fifteen youths and four
maidens and they danced so much and sang so loudly that they disturbed
the priest, who was saying mass. He left the chapel and came out
to them, asking them to desist; but, heedless of his injunction,
they continued their sport. The priest then prayed to God
and to St. Magnus to make them dance for a whole year as a punishment.
The writer, says that a girl's arm came off in the hand of her
partner, but she danced on; that they felt neither rain, nor cold,
nor heat, nor hunger, thirst, or fatigue; their shoes and their
clothes wore out, but they danced on. They trod down the ground
to such an extent that they made a deep hole in it, but they danced
on; and only at the end of a year did their release come. The
rage became endemic, and in 1374, the number of sufferers from
the St. Vitus dance became enormous. In France, it was called
"Danse de St. Guy," and in Germany,
it took the name of "Veith ," In Lorraine,
it was called "La Danse de St. Jean. "
as well as being named others such as Choromania, Tanplage and
Dance of St. Modesti.
Tarantismus...
The new American Encyclopedia (1870) gives the most
reasonable version, which in conformity to truth. Quote: "It
(the disease) was long supposed to be caused by the bite
of a large spider called the "Arania Tarantula. " Nevertheless,
just as scarcely, any of those afflicted with it, had any consciousness
of having been bitten by a spider or any other insect. As it had
been in every instance propagated mainly by physical contagion,
like Chorea, Demonomania, and other kindred affections. There
was every reason to believe its origin from a similar cause. "
Whatever its origin however, all authors agree that music and
dancing was the established and almost universal in remedy.
1) Carlo Blasis writes in the
1860s:
"Claritio and Serrao,
two Neapolitan physicians, have proved by various experiments,
that all that has been said with regard to the bite of the Tarantella
spider, is false. The terrible accounts given of it arise from
ignorance and prejudice, and are propagated by quackery.
-- Experimenting discovered that music was the only incentive
sufficient to stimulate the unhappy sufferers to action. The music
employed on these occasions was of the most lively and electrifying
character of the violin, guitar, or dulcimer, (the castagnette
is mentioned) and had the effect to cause them to dance and
leap about until the profusion of perspiration drained the poison
from their system.
The Furlana
or Fourlane of Venice was very similar to the
Tarantella except it is executed "more ragged and irregular"
and was much in vogue among the gondoliers. It is very lively,
and its music is 6/8 time, played in a molto-allegretto style.
It is called Fourlane because of its having been first danced
in the Frioul . This dance is very similar to
the Tarantella, but not quite so diversified. The Saltarello
, which was danced very much in Rome and Venice, and which is
not unlike the Tarantella."
2) Goethe describes the dance
as follows (paraphrased):
"Three girls, one with a tambourine (with bells
on it) and castanets are used by the other two. The two girls
with the castanets execute the steps. The girls steps are not
distinctive or even graceful, basically they step in time and
spin around in place using the castanets, when one tires, she
trades places with the tambourine Girl" (They do this
for fun for hours, 20-40 hours at times.)
3)Sachs describes the couples'
version as follows (paraphrased):
"The dancer, kneels in adoration of his female
partner. As she dances for him, he, as though sated, speedily
forsakes her again; how with a thousand turns and tricks he now
holds aloof and now rushes upon her. His gambols and capers are
grotesque
(sloppy) and yet charming, light and tender. His bearing
is yet proud and resolute, now querulous and elaborate. Leg's
and arms, even the fingers, strumming the tambourine (hers),
and above all the "glance", ardent, languishing, suddenly
bold and shameless, reinforce the expression of the posture. The
girl comes out of her corner, now wayward, now willing. Her smile
is eloquent, her eyes are drunken. She swings her skirt; she picks
up the corner as if to gather things in it; or she raises the
arm so that the hand hangs down loosely over her head as though
from a hook, while the other hand presses against her heart. Now
she is the axis in which the male rotates."
Note: Most pictures of this dance are similar looking to a Flamenco
and or Bolero. The Tarentella is a popular Wedding Dance Song.
$ Get Weddings for Dummies (with Tarentella)
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