Italian Culture

Michael Murano is a 11 year old who’s ancestry stretches back the year 1540 to Alfonso and Russiano Murano who lived in Salerno Italy. Salerno Italy is located in the south-western part of Italy off the cost of the gulf of Salerno in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The Renaissance is popularly called the re-birth of art in Europe and was so with many different types of art including dance, theater, and art.
In the 1600’s dance was used to tell stories in the form of ballets and done as entertainment for the social classes. Renaissance people danced for many different reasons ranging from religious prayer to entertainment at social gatherings. Renaissance dance was highly choreography with simple movement unlike modern dance. Cohen 2001 noted “ On the beat, dancers rose , not fell. They held their upper bodies gracefully upright, keeping their hands mostly Low. The lively movements was in the legs, where complicated steps, kicks, hops, and stamps showed style and virtuosity”(283). The costuming that the dancers adorned themselves were very traditional where as the men wore leggings and tunics while the women were bogged down by heavy layered dresses that covered their legs and feet. These dances were sometimes done as a solo performance, but most of time they were performed as a couple. The dance was always performed with live music that was comprised of the clavichords, a pro-harpsichord, and a small drum to keep the dancers on beat. Cohen pointed out “The elite danced to small bands of a drum, pipes, and several shawms (like oboes); peasants often resorted to bagpipes. Tempos varied from the slow bass dans to the quick saltarello and piva”(283). These dancers were highly skilled graceful entertainer and were in high demand for entertainme...

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...nal decision of life or death.
Italy has come a long way from the gladiator battles and has shifted it’s focused to preserving it’s culture in art and religion. Italy is also home to some of the most beautiful custom glass blowing in the world. Off the coast of the Venice, Italy there is the island of Murano where the Murano Glass Factory is located that is home to the artisans that use

Works Cited

Cohen, E. S., & Cohen, T. V. (2001). Daily life during the Italian Renaissance. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
Grout, J. (n.d.). The Roman Gladiator. The Roman Gladiator. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/gladiators/gladiators.html
Killinger, C. L. (2005). Culture and customs of Italy. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.
Wilson, E., & Goldfarb, A. (2008). Theater: the lively art (6th ed.). Boston: McGraw Hill.