One of Puglia's most seductive traditions is the fantastic, hypnotic form of music and dance called 'pizzica'. The passionate and rhythmic dance features young women with bare feet and bare arms, and sporting long skirts, dancing alone or whirling round a partner. Part of the same folk culture as fairy tales, nursery rhymes, myths and legends, it's unsurprising that there are so many stories that explain its origins.
One traditional interpretation was that it was the midsummer dance of women bitten by a tarantula while out working in the fields. The passionate dance is said to represent their response to the bite, or possibly their attempts to speed up the poison's exit from the body.
Other stories of the dance's origins are similarly confused, including the legend that the frenetic movements were first seen in the Northern Crusaders passing through the South of Italy on their way to fight in the Holy Lands. They too were the supposed victims of the maddening bite of the black spider; the dance was either their response to it, or a representation of the movements they made while sweating out the poison.
But most explanations link the dance to women - a more recent interpretation attributing the movements as products of a kind of female hysteria. Typically the dance is characterised as a psychological than physical or social phenomenon. Musician and historian Luigi Chiriatti refers to the fevered self-abandonment that the dancers reach as 'una rottura della coscienza', a complete suspension of consciousness.
Performing in small, intimate surroundings, the dancer is driven by a small band, typically made up of violin (supplying the melody), a special type of drum called a 'tamburello', an accordion or 'un organetto diatonico', a guitar and a single voice. They produce a very fast 6/8 rhythm, and in their music you can hear echoes of the music from the multitudes who, through the centuries, have passed through or settled in this region - Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Spanish, Celtic and Gypsy.
It is a dance that evokes strong feeling from spectators, too. Many of those lucky enough to have been present at a live performance consider the dance superior to Flamenco in terms of passion, to the gigs of Ireland in terms of energy, and to belly dancing in terms of sensuality. The bite of the spider clearly leaves its mark.
Links
Radicanto
Puglian Association for Music, Theatre and Dance. A great site for audio and video recordings of traditional Puglian music, including pizzica. In English and Italian.
Teatro del Sole
Website for this Southern Italian music project, with a discography of traditional music of the region. In Italian.
Italian Music Online
Listen to MP3 extracts of all sorts of Italian music, including Puglian regional favourites.
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Dance - Pizzica Tarantata