Come and find out about the Pizzica, an engaging music and dance style from Puglia, the beautiful heel of Italy's boot! Following their performance at the SFJAZZ Center (Thursday, June 20, 7:30pm), the Italian music masters from Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino are offering a fun and engaging workshop about the Pizzica--learn about the dance, the music, its history and instruments, and the mysterious ancient rituals of "Tarantism" believed to cure the taranta spider's bite with its frenzied trance dance. The workshop will take place at the Italian Cultural Institute on Friday, June 21, 6:30pm.

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino
With a “few peers in contemporary world music” (New Yorker), Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino has been bringing the uproarious music and dance of Southern Italy to new audiences for over four decades. Founded by journalist, author, and Salentine musical scholar Caterina “Rina” Durante in the mid-1970s, CGS spearheaded a revival of the ancient folk music form pizzica tarantata that was born in Puglia’s Salento region, infusing it with a contemporary sensibility and rambunctious energy.