ALESSANDRA
BELLONI is
a singer, percussionist, dancer and actress who stands
as one of the most important voices of traditional
southern Italian music
and dance today. She is artist-in-residence at the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Alessandra is Artistic
Director and Founder of I Giullari di Piazza (the
Players of the Square). For her mastery of musical
styles-both at home and abroad-she has been acclaimed
as one of the greatest living percussionists in the
world, and has her own signature series of Italian
tambourines designed with the largest percussion industry
in the world, Remo Inc.
Tarantella Spider Dance
featuring Alessandra Belloni and her company I Giullari Di Piazza
Writtten and directed by Alessandra Belloni,
Choreographed by Alessandra Belloni and Antonio Fini
featuring
Alessandra Belloni - Vocals and percussion
Joe Deninzon - Acoustic and electric violin
Vinnie Sciala - Drumset and percussion
Wilson Montuori - Guitars
plus many dynamic dancers
From the gypsy culture of Southern Italy comes an Italian drumming ritual and dance performed by Alessandra Belloni and her company I Giullari Di Piazza.
A Spider Woman dancing in the air, weaving a magic web on the audience, the beautiful God Dyonisus dancing with fire, an amazing stilt dancer symbolizing the Sun God, death and the King of Carnival.
Alessandra Belloni's "Tarantella - Spider Dance" invokes ancient traditions of the Winter and Summer Solstice, when people gathered in the woods to celebrate secret rites in honor of Dyonisus and women danced with swords to the sounds of tambourines and violins.
The production has the flavor of Cirque du Soleil and the potential of being the new River Dance. Ms. Belloni and Antonio Fini (of Martha Graham Dance Company) have created a choreography full of surprises using masks, fire, and spiders crawling on the floor.
An earlier version of this production was presented at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in 1996 and played to a sold-out audience as "The Dance of the Ancient Spider." In articles on the year's best World Music CDs, the sound track of this production made the top ten lists of Jon Pareles of the NY Times and Dan Hackman of the Los Angeles Times.
"Tarantella - Spider Dance" is intended to involve the audience of all ages, especially young people, in a collective ritual dance of liberation known as the Pizzica or Spider Dance. The traditional Tarantella was a dance to expel a spider's venom, to celebrate new energy and expel the "old poison" out of the body.
This is Ms. Belloni's first foray into "techno" music. The show features a new take on the tarantella folk rhythm and dance that Ms. Belloni calls "techno Tarantella Ecstasy." The techno sound is mainly created by the Russian violinist Joe Deninzon who is originally from St. Petersburg and leads the jam-band Stratospherus. He has been dubbed the Jim Hendrix of the violin.
Alessandra Belloni is a Remo artist with her own line of signature series tambourines. An internationally-known virtuoso of this instrument, she is reviving its use in an ancient women's tradition. Women priestesses honoring the Goddess of the Earth and the Moon, in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome mainly played the tambourine and its "cousin," the frame drum. Today it is still used in Southern Italy, and Ms. Belloni is the only woman who has mastered this instrument while combining it with singing and dancing.
a celebration of Italian Spring rites with food wine ,music and dance featuring scenes from TARANTELLA-SPIDER DANCE.
A special fund raiser for I GIULLARI DI PIAZZA and our new prodcution SPIDER DANCE honoring the Very Rev Dean James PArks Morton former dean of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Please join us if you believe in our mission of creating a great show about the history of the Tarantella and its healing powers, we are working on making this world music opera into the Italian River Dance. Little Red School Theatre
Little Red School
40 Charlton Street downtown Manhattan
between 6th Avenue and Varick Street
tickets $ 60.00 including show, wine ,food
Alessandra Belloni
Abelloni@aol.com
Friday, June 6, 2008
7:00 pm
TARANTELLA - spider dance cocnert version
concert
Concert version of large show TARANTELLA SPIDER DANCE
Featuring ALessandra Belloni vocals, percussion and dance,
ALESSANDRA BELLONI ~ internationally renown percussionist, singer-dancer REMO Signature series artist PRESENTS Special Healing Dance & Percussion workshop focusing on the origins of the Tarantella as a healing dance of purification
Featuring Southern Italian ritual dances used as music and dance therapy combined with their unique style of tambourine, and focusing on the ancient healing trance dance of the Tarantella, used to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula.
In Part 1 we will review the rhythms and chants in honor of the Black Madonna known as Tammoriata – done in honor of the Black Madonna (originally ancient rites for the Earth Goddess Cybele). Part 2 Students will also learn the trance 6/8 rhythm and dance of SAN ROCCO called the : THE SPINNING DANCE, Based on a trance tarantella from Calabria in honor of San Rocco, dating back to the Middle ages, used as a healing ritual against the plague. Everyone spins together in a spiral and in a circle.
The final part will be dedicated to the healing trance dance of purification called Pizzica Tarantata, used to cure a mental disorder called Tarantismo, which afflicted mainly women, who felt stuck in the spider web of their society. Every student will learn the steps of the Pizzica, which are very fast and energetic. Part of the ritual takes place on the floor, and the dance is actually a spider-like movement on the ground. This part has the most amazing healing effect, releasing stress, blockage of sexual energy, as well as opening the heart and throat chakra according to the movements, as if coming out of an imaginary SPIDERWEB. Alessandra will end the sessions using the ocean drum, creating the sound of the waves in a final relaxation invoking the healing power of the water. Please wear white and red, the ritual colors of the Tarantate. (Please do not wear black.)
Cost: $50 For more information (201) 224-3833 or ABelloni@aol.com www.alessandrabelloni.com FIRST PRESBITERIAN CHURCH – 731 UNDERCLIFF AVE. Edgewater NJ 07020
New
Book/DVD
Rhythm is the Cure
Southern Italian Tambourine
Featuring
Alessandra Belloni
from MelBay Publishing
Available
Now! from AlessandraBelloni.com More Info
FIRST PRESBITERIAN CHURCH –