Southern Italy serves as the birthplace for the folk dance known as the “Tarantella.” This dance originates as far back as the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period. Primarily, this dance started off as a solo dance to cure diseases, but eventually transformed into a dance of courtship over the years (Saint-Louis). I choose to research this specific country because my grandfather is an immigrant from Italy. Italian culture has always intrigued me; I enjoy learning about the history of where my ancestors came from. The tarantella dance caught my attention because of its fascinating history as well as its fast, upbeat pace, and music. I was also captivated with how the dance evolved into new forms over time, I enjoyed seeing how the dance adapted …show more content…
Traditional costuming for woman includes a white blouse and loose sleeves under a black vest, paired with colorful knee length skirts. For men, the customary costuming consisted of black or colorful knee length pants corresponding with long white socks, along with a white shirt and colorful vests. The unaccompanied form of the tarantella that was used as a cure does not have certain dance techniques or movements. The dancers were known to transition from standing to tumbling to the group multiple times throughout the dance. …show more content…
The woman uses speed and liveliness to excite the love of her partner. In turn, the man tries to charm the woman with his agility, elegance as well as a demonstration of tenderness for the woman. The dance at times has unity and separation where one can see dancers flying into each other’s arms only to bound away again (Story). The tarantella demonstrates moves such as low kicks, crossing the feet over the other while transferring the weight and traveling backwards. One can also see stomping and spinning in both clockwise and counter clock wise directions. In most cases, the woman will use a tambourine first tapping it on her shoulder and hips while performing with her counterpart in a do-si-do fashion. To elaborate, the women stands playing the tambourine while her partner dances around her. The man then takes a knee while the woman does a mixture of basic movements in front of him. The following sixteen counts of music the woman performs eight steps counterclockwise as her partner shakes the tambourine. Throughout the dance, one can see that the dance values the woman’s ability to resist the admiration of the opposite gender (Lintini). This is seen through the man kneeling as the woman dances around him. As the tarantella adapted into a courtship dance it was established to be unlucky to be danced alone
...the masks in the form of a cape-like garment in order to cover the dancer who wore it. (Waldman, 41-43)
A second type of musical structure is what is known as a ruffle dance. Both Northern and Southern plains tribes perform these songs and the structures are practically the same, minus the vocal range. The song is performed by alternating between a ruffle, which is random loud beats of the drum, and even beats. Transitions between ruffles and even beats can also have a change in tempo as heard in CD 1 track
“The most common highland dance is the huayno, which is performed to love songs. The most common Ciriello dance is the Macarena, Peru’s national courtship dance” (Morrison 112).
Clothing for both men and women initially was deerskin for shirts and skirts. The men later wore cotton or velvet shirts with no collars, breeches below the knee, and moccasins. Women gradually wore the "squaw dress", made of plain dark blankets.
The music that accompanied the dancers ranged from a traditional war dance to a neo-traditional dance
Action which is a fundamental element to dance as it plays a crucial role within a production. For instance, the lady characterised as Lady Jane prances, twists and turns around the stage, joyfully and energetically, to welcome her newly adopted child into her home, clearly eager to teach Mathinna about the colonialized world. However, as evidenced through her gestures to unrecognisable objects in Mathinna’s new room, she connotes to the audiences that while she is elated to teach Mathinna, it is her duty to forcibly integrate her into a white culture. At one point within the scene, Lady Jane turns to the audience, and proudly gestures a confused Mathinna to her new room; suggesting that she is insensitive or emotionally unscathed to the fact that Mathinna was forcibly removed from her home, never to see her family again. Lady Jane shows movements which suggest authority and obligation, whereas Mathinna slugs around disorientated, confused and lost in a seemingly alien culture. Choreographic devices play a vital role in the communication of
Wisner, Heather. “With a Hop, A Kick, And A Turn, Cumbia Enters the Global Stage.” Dance Magazine 80.9 (2006): 64-68. Humanities Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). Web. 7 Dec. 2011
The dancers begin in unison in a large clump. They dance together with slow movements; reaching up with their arms straight and palms open. It is to be noted that when they stretch their arms up, they tilt their head and look up as well. Throughout the piece the dancers repeat this movement, which represents reaching and praying to God. The dancers are constantly reaching up, embodying their despair and their yearning for help. As the dance progresses, the dancers repeatedly break out of the clump in the center and do different movements and their own sequences. After this, they always go back to their clump and do synchronized movement. Their constant breaking away from the group symbolizes their continual want to be free, as well as their persistency. On the other hand, their constant going back to the group shows how African-Americans will always be joined together by their culture, prayer, and hardships. Additionally during the piece, multiple dancers will run up to another dancer and jump or hold onto them, and then they do a couple of movements together. This shows how they are reliant and dependent on each other, and how they need each other throughout their suffering. Lastly, Much of the movement in this section possesses the downward energy characteristic of African dance, which symbolizes a connection to the earth. The choices Ailey made choreographically communicates all
During my visit, I was able to observe different dances that were very interesting. Two dances that caught my attention were the “Toro Mambo” representing the state of Sinaloa and “Payasos of Tlaxcala” representing Tlaxcala. The “Toro Mambo” from the region of Sinaloa is one of the most popular dances in Mexico. The dance is really interesting for the reason that it represents a story in where a bull would dance on a place known as the “mambo.” In this folk dance the dancer do movements at the same paste while trying to imitate how the bull would dance. In this dance the women wear long colorful dresses to represent joy and in order to move the skirts higher. In contrast, the men wear light color shirts and jeans that matches with their partner. In the other side the dance of the “Payasos de Tlaxcala” represents a story of a festival in the region of Tlaxcala. To perform this dance men and women dress like clowns in colorful outfits to amuse the people in the festival. During the dance, the dancers try to satisfy the public by putting humor in the dance and doing crazy movements. This dances are both very great and enjoyable to watch. It is amazing how you could learn so much in a little bit of time and in a beautiful art
Overall time helped demonstrated the masses’ movement unity as they moved with the time and the individual’s struggle as she moved contrary to the group’s time. The dance began with a lively Bach movement, which created a feeling of excitement as the mass of dancers moved with increasing speed. The short duration needed to complete movements, regularity of the music, and repetition of dance patterns of the group established their synchronization with time. In contrast, this allegro tempo created a nervous, rushed feeling for the individual woman, which established her contradiction to the groups perception of time. The sharp, sudden adagio tempo change in Part 2 created an uneasy mood, while establishing distrust and tension between the individual woman and the masses. The stillness of the mass dancers in response to the woman in Part 2 exemplified this segregation. As the tempo slowed in Part 4, an element of sadness and isolation was apparent in the individual woman’s movement. In contrast, this tempo change for the group created an intimacy between the individual heterosexual couples. This intimacy further isolated the individual women and demonstrated her movement against groups perception of time. The changes in tempo of music and dance movement complimented the third element of dance, dynamics or
The musical performance aspect of my paper was not an issue to complete. If you go to Little Italy, New York on any given weekend, especially around the holiday season or the San Gennaro Festival, musical performers are usually playing on the streets. There are many restaurants in Little Italy, Manhattan that have live entertainment; most of these musical performers will come to your table. When it came to comparing the musical traditions of Italy to the Italian-American performance that I observed, I had a little more trouble. Italian music is such a large topic to delve into–there are so many composers and different types of music that it made it difficult to narrow down my research for this paper. In future research among this community, I would suggest that the student is aware of what type of performance they are going to observe—I was unaware of whether the musician would be a Classical Italian performer or an Italian American performer. In my opinion, most of the performers in Little Italy, Manhattan seems to be Italian-American.
"Tarantella: An Italian Folk Dance." Tarantella: An Italian Folk Dance. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
Whether it is the fire dances of the native Hawaiians, or the Tango from Spain, dance is a part of every culture. This event is not an event I would usually attend. I am not into art of any kind except music. At first, there were two reasons I went to this performance.
Also, the performers are constituted with same number of men and women. They imply the importance of equality through the performance. The female and male dancers use the same movements to show that they are equal. The message being conveyed here is important, on the grounds of its social influence and giving the whole performance a deeper meaning. The thing makes dancing different and odd to other occupations is the fact that most famous and well known dancers are mostly females, since on other social circumstances males tend to dominate more realms. Here, besides all the female masters, the male dancers appear as much as the female artists do and they also showcase what they are capable of. As I watched more of the performance, the interactions between dancers and the LED lights became more appealing to me. Dancers use their bodies to interpret the connections between human beings and technology. Moreover, the background music also plays a vital role in the production of this whole piece of art. The tempo of the music, the dance movements, as well as the frequency of the lights going on and off together appeared to the audience as a desirable combination. I love how the dancers do every movements according to the rhythm of the music and how they two fit perfectly. All of those things together made a great show to watch and
African traditional dance has been one of the victims of colonialism modernity .Dances such as reed dance (umkhosi womhlanga) and wedding dance (amhubo) has been neglected, however they have not stopped practicing them but the way they are done is no longer similar than it was before .Maxwell Xolani Rani says that “modernity is having an adverse effect on traditional dance in Africa” (1996; 15).