The tarantella (the specific southern Italian folk dance tradition, the dance named for the taranta (the tarantula spider) whose bite the folk medical tradition attributed as the cause of the specific physiological and psychological state (the tarantismo) that the dance was believed to cure): the tarantella isn't one dance but a family of related dance traditions from the different regions of southern Italy, each with its own specific characteristics (the Neapolitan tarantella (the couple's dance in the fast 6/8 rhythm with the tambourine (the tamburello) and the castanets), the Calabrian tarantella (the line dance tradition of the mountain communities), and the Salento pizzica-tarantata (the specific healing-ritual variant that the Salento tarantismo tradition documents as the specific therapy for the tarantula-bite victim (or the symbolically "bitten" person, the erotic frustration, the social suppression, or the hysterical condition that the tarantismo encoding served as the cultural container for)).
The specific tarantismo research: Ernesto de Martini's "La terra del rimorso" (1961, the landmark Italian ethnomusicological study of the Salento tarantismo, the first systematic academic documentation of the specific healing ritual (the vittima della tarantola (the bitten person, almost invariably a woman) placed on the floor surrounded by musicians playing the pizzica rhythm, the specific colors and objects (the red cloth, the specific herbs) used in the healing space, and the specific dance-to-exhaustion protocol that the tradition required as the "cure")): the specific de Martini analysis (the tarantismo as the specific cultural encoding of female hysteria and social frustration in the specific southern Italian patriarchal agricultural community that provided no other socially acceptable expression for female desire and grief) is the most cited single Italian ethnomusicological interpretation and the one that the next La Notte della Taranta festival has built on as its cultural foundation.
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Italian Tarantella: The Variants, the Music, and Where to See It
The Neapolitan Tarantella
The Neapolitan tarantella (the popular theatrical version of the tarantella that the 19th-century Neapolitan tourism and entertainment industry developed from the folk tradition): the specific Neapolitan tarantella character (the couple's dance, the facing positions and the rapid footwork, the tambourine (the tamburello) held by the woman, the colored ribbons, and the specific 6/8 time (the presto ma non troppo (fast but not too much) marking that distinguishes the Neapolitan from the Calabrian tarantella (which can accelerate to the frenetic presto of the Calabrian variant)): the Neapolitan tarantella is the version that the 19th-century Grand Tour travelers saw, painted, and described (the François Gérard "Corinne on Cape Miseno" (1819) and the Edgar Degas "L'Ancia" (the lost 1861 tarantella painting) among the most specific artistic responses to the Neapolitan tarantella experience).
The Pizzica-Tarantata
The Pizzica-Tarantata (the Salento healing variant, the specific pizzica sub-genre that the tarantismo ritual requires): the pizzica-tarantata music (the specific harmonic and rhythmic mode, the specific pizzica tarantata uses a specific set of scales (the Dorian mode and the Phrygian mode predominate) and a specific rhythmic acceleration pattern (the "giriamo, balliamo" (we circle, we dance) that the musicians modulate in response to the victim's physical state, accelerating when the victim moves to the dance floor and decelerating when exhaustion approaches)): the living pizzica-tarantata (the La Notte della Taranta festival (Melpignano, last Saturday of August, free, 200,000 attendance): the most publicly visible single Italian folk music and dance event: check pizzicataranta.it for the 2026 program.
Q&A: Italian Tarantella
Is there a difference between the tarantella and the pizzica?
Yes, the specific distinction: the tarantella is the family name for the southern Italian folk dances in the fast 6/8 or 2/4 rhythm with the tambourine and the couple or group format. The pizzica is the specific Salento sub-genre of the tarantella family, the Salento name for the local variant of the tarantella tradition (the word "pizzica" derives from the "bite", the same metaphor as the tarantella/tarantula connection). The pizzica-tarantata is the specific healing sub-variant of the pizzica. The Neapolitan tarantella, the Calabrian tarantella, and the Salento pizzica are all members of the tarantella family but are distinct in rhythm (the Neapolitan is the most precise 6/8. The pizzica is more variable), in instrumentation (the Neapolitan uses castanets. The pizzica uses violin and accordion alongside the tambourine), and in social function (the Neapolitan was primarily an entertainment. The pizzica-tarantata was primarily a ritual).
