This Sunday - October 5th - 2:00 - 5:00 P.M.
Italian American Museum Presents

RHYTHM IS THE CURE: A Healing Dance and Percussion Workshop

Featuring the tarantella rhythms and steps

Conducted by Alessandra Belloni
REMO Signature Series Artist
www.alessandrabelloni.com

www.youtube.com/alessandrabelloni

Message from Museum President, Dr. Joseph V. Scelsa: "Please join Alessandra in this beautiful location with a powerful statue of the Black Madonna!"

About the Workshop:

Experience the healing power of tarantella rhythms and dance with internationally renowned singer, percussionist, and teacher, Alessandra Belloni, featuring Southern Italian ritual dances used as music and dance therapy for centuries throughout the Mediterranean. Participants will learn the unique style of tambourine playing and the ancient healing trance dance of the tarantella, used to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula. The workshop focuses on releasing blockages of energies, breaking the imaginary "spider web" of the subconscious.

The purpose of this workshop is to introduce general audiences to a very rich tambourine and folk dance culture with an active current performance practice in Southern Italy and also to bring women back in touch with their lost drumming tradition.

This workshop will give people the means to fortify themselves against daily stresses. Students will become empowered through discovery of the ancient art of frame drumming and a technique of music and dance therapy that restores spiritual and physical energy.

Each class is designed to follow the method described in her book/DVD, Rhythm is the Cure. This enables students to continue their studies independently after the course is complete.

Students shall begin each session with drumming followed by an hour and a half of dance. Students will learn the variations of the basic 6/8 rhythm of the Tarantella that originated as music and dance therapy to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula.

Participants will learn:

* The rhythm and dance of the Tammorriata: Originally from Naples, the Tammorriata is an improvisation of drumming and singing, and it is danced during the rituals held in the summer in honor of the Black Madonna (originally ancient rites for the Earth Goddess Cybele)

** Pizzica Tarantata: A very fast 6/8 rhythm from Puglia, with different accents, which originated as music therapy to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula. This wild rhythm, played mainly by women on medium size tambourines with a double row of jingles and the dance were performed as a musical exorcism to cure a mental disease called tarantismo, which afflicted mainly women (tarantate), who fell into a hypnotic state of mind, and in a trance they frantically danced for days during the Summer Solstice. Originally these were the ancient Greek rites for the God Dionysus as Puglia was part of Greece and was called Magna Grecia.

Alessandra will also teach chants and songs of devotion to the Black Madonna and to the Sun (Jesce Sole).

About Alessandra Belloni:

Alessandra Belloni is a singer, percussionist, dancer and actress who stands as one of the most important voices of traditional southern Italian music and dance today. She is an artist in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC and Artistic Director/Founder of I Giullari di Piazza (Players of the Square). Acclaimed for her mastery of musical styles at home and abroad, she has her own signature series of Italian tambourines designed with the largest percussion manufacturer in the world, REMO. Ms. Belloni was born in Rome, Italy and is committed to preserving the strong and rich traditions of her culture. She has performed extensively with master drummer Glen Velez and was invited by Nana Vasconcellos and Gilberto Gil to perform in PERC PAN '98 in Bahia, Brazil. Alessandra was also selected as one of three runners-up to Arthur Hull in DRUM! magazine's "New Age/Worldbeat Percussionist" category in their 1998 awards. She was featured in Modern Drummer magazine and has written articles for Percussive Notes.

Sunday, October 5th, 2:00 - 5:00 P.M.

Italian American Museum
155 Mulberry Street
(Corner of Grand and Mulberry Streets)
New York, NY 10013

$65 per person

To reserve a place for this workshop, please call the

Italian American Museum at (212) 965-9000

or email: [email protected]