Dance of the Ancient Spider

The mystical-erotic trance rituals of southern Italy...haunting prayers to the Black Madonna and the Goddess of the Mediterranean...the breathtaking love songs of its storied islands - from the dawn of Italy's magical-spiritual song tradition comes Alessandra Belloni's new release, TARANTATA: Dance of the Ancient Spider. With her soaring mezzo-soprano and mesmerizing tambourine rhythms, Alessandra casts a spellbinding web of sensuality spun from the tarantella-the ecstatic rites used to cure young women of a mysterious affliction known as "the bite of the ancient spider."

This CD features music from a production that she wrote and premiered with her ensemble, I Giullari di Piazza, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, in New York. The production was made possible by the Community Acts Project Award, which allowed her to bring to the stage an ancient Greek myth that is the origin of the famous and often misinterpreted dance known as the tarantella. The word tarantella itself means "little spider," and thus the production was named "The Dance of the Ancient Spider."

Unfortunately, in the United States, this powerful dance is known as a silly wedding dance. In reality it is a wild, erotic trance dance of purification, performed mainly by women, to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula. The original name of the dance is pizzica tarantata. Pizzica literally means "bite" a reference to the "bite of love" that occurs when one's subconscious mind is filled with repressed desires. This bite of love often begins during puberty and is caused by a repression of erotic desire or an experience of unrequited love, abuse or depression. A woman afflicted by this bite is called tarantata; she feels caught in a web, a web of societal repression.

In Greece, southern Italy, North Africa, and Spain, when this mythical "bite" or mental condition afflicted women, their only cure was to be found through music and dance. We can date the origins of the tarantella back to the ancient orgiastic Greek rites to honor of the God Dionysus. These rites were led by women who reached a state of euphoria, dancing to the rhythms of tambourines. Since ancient times, these rites have included powerful ritual music and trance dances that have been used across the Mediterranean for healing and purification.

Tarantata: Dance of the Ancient Spider is dedicated to all women who have known the anguish and desperation of feeling trapped in a mythical spider web. Her wish is to bring this ancient cure of wild dancing back to all women who need to free themselves from their spider webs and find their true expression.