 |
As the Italian press said: New York has been bitten by the spider again, this time not by SPIDER MAN, but by SPIDER WOMAN, or the tarantula , flying in the air the spell bounding production of: TARANTELLA - SPIDER DANCE” presented at Theater for the New City (in New York) December 21 to 23 to sold out audiences 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 orgiastic rite in honor of Dyonisus and women danced with swords to the sounds of tambourines and violins.
The production has, more or less, the flavor of Cirque du Soleil has 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, ending up on a web with the spectacular aerial Dancer Fran Sperling.
"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.
It's 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.
MORE ABOUT THE SHOW
"TARANTELLA – SPIDER DANCE"
Writtten and directed by Alessandra Belloni,
choreographed by Alessandra Belloni and Antonio Fini
Wild, erotic trance dance and ritual drumming from Southern Italy and the Mediterranean. - Celebrating the mystical power of the tarantella - a wild erotic dance ritual from Southern Italy used to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula.
While I Giullari Di Piazza is well known for extravaganzas with ritual drumming and traditional folk music, this is its first production using Techno Music. It is also its first collaboration with choreographer Antonio Fini of the Martha Graham Dance Company.
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.
This new production has folk dances choreographed by Alessandra Belloni and modern dances choreographed by Antonio Fini, who is originally from southern Italy. Its music infuses ancient melodies and instrumentation; Arabic, Middle Eastern, and Brazilian rhythms; and for the first time, techno beats and electronic music. Music arranged by Joe Deninzon for electric violin, some compositions are also be Alessandra Belloni and originally the folk music was arranged by guitarist John La Barbera, co-founder of I GIULLARI DI PIAZZA. Instrumentation in this piece combines the traditional and the modern. Traditional percussion instrumentation will include tambourines, frame drums, dumbeck, riqq and castanets. Modern instrumentation will include drum set; electric violin techno beats and electronic music.
In its modern sense, the piece aims to involve audiences of all ages in a collective ritual dance of liberation from the spider web of entrapment in today's society. It aims for an ecstatic release known as the Pizzica, or Spider Dance, whose origins are cross-cultural. Its music derives from ancient Greece, southern Italy during the Crusades, the Renaissance and modern times, blending modern and ancient healing trance dances, powerful ritual drumming and chants in honor of the Black Madonna, erotic sensual love songs and women's work chants.
Most specifically, the performance harkens back to the myth of the spider : Arachne, played by dancer Sharon Li VArdo, challenges the Goddess Athena, played by percussionist/singer Alessandra Belloni into a weaving contest. Arachne wins and Athena, taken by jealousy, destroys her competitor's creation. A humiliated Arachne commits suicide and hangs herself from a tree. Athena then transforms her into a spider, played by Aerial dancer Fran Sperling thus condemning her to weave her web forever.
The show goes on with the Dance of the Tarantula, which begins as a healing trance dance for women from the Greek rites of the "Baccantes." ]nd continues into the Middle ages and Renaissance when women involved in these rites, were called Tarantate.
They dance the "Pizzica Tarantata" ("the bite of the spider tarantula," also called "the bite of love"). A bite of love drives them to dance in a wild frenzy in order to free themselves of repressed sexual desires. The dominant music is percussion, with large tambourines playing non-stop to a 12/8 beat, with loud accents. By spinning and stomping their feet, the dancers symbolically expelled the "poison" of the mythical bite of the tarantula from their bodies. The powerful and haunting notes of violin helps get the madness out, as the dancers, traditionally clad in white with red scarves and ribbons, move on their backs like spiders.
Recreating and experiencing a trance-like state induced by the combination of music and dancing.
The performance concludes with a collective trance dance cleansing ceremony.
The musical ensemble includes Alessandra Belloni (lead vocals, southern Italian percussion and ritual dance), musical director Joe Deninzon (electric and acoustic violin) percussionist s Vinnie Sciala & Wael Gamel from Egypt, Sergio Bellotti (drumset) and Anand Gan (computer samples design and sound engineer). Singers are Alessandra Belloni (mezzo soprano), Ivan Thomas (baritone, from the original show "River Dance") and Alessandra Tartivita (soprano).
The dance company includes eight dynamic dancers .and fire dancers of different cultural backgrounds. Appearing will be dancers from the Martha Graham Ensemble, guided by Antonio Fini also in the role of Dyonisus, Italian folk dancers; stilt dancer Mark Mindek.
PRESS CLIPPINGS:
"Invocations and work songs, exorcisms and lullabies shared the program of "Rhythm is the Cure' in the Chapel of the cathedral of St. John the Divine.... driven by tambourine patterns so fast that the drummers hands became blurs. Ms. Belloni sang in an exultant voice. The songs blazed with an age-old momentum." (Jon Pareles, New York Times)
"Alessandra Belloni... is a revelation ... The Music is utterly fascinating in addition to its revelatory presentation of Italian roots music, it is timely as well, given the current surge of interest in the healing powers of music." (Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times)
For bookings please contact: Alessandra Belloni at Abelloni@aol.com or (646) 322-4637
Or Audrey Ross Public relations: AudreyPub@aol.com (212) 877-3399
or write to Vidya Chary email charividya@gmail.com
Also: www.alessandrabelloni.com or www.myspace.com/alessandrabelloni
|
