Tarantella Dance Biography

Marina Koroleva Observer "Echo of Moscow" Tarantella. Ah, this Tarantella! Very fast, rapid Italian folk dance. Cheerful, incendiary, joyful. What is there - just crazy! And when the dancers are spinning in Tarantella, the question would not occur to anyone: what does spiders have to do with it? Meanwhile, what is the dance, such is the question. But let's try to start from the beginning.

In the VIII century BC, a group of Spartans founded a colony on the western shore of the "Italian boot". This was the only overseas colony founded by land lovers, Greeks, writes A. Azimov in the book "Words in History". They called her Taraz. It was a strong ancient Greek city-state that controlled the vast and rich agricultural district, which had a large and comfortable harbor in Southern Italy, and was the largest center for crafts and trade.

In the seventh century BC, the city of Taraz became one of the richest, crowded and powerful policies of Great Greece. Then he moved to Roman rule and became a tarent man, many different ups and downs happened to him, as a result of which Muslims finally destroyed him in the X century AD. Later, the city of Tarante was restored and still completely exists, but already under the name of Taranto.

So, this name, Taranto, gave the name both dance and spider.

We call a large poisonous spider living in the ground. And the dance is tarantella. Etymological dictionaries with these brief information, in fact, are limited, but Azimov gives an expanded version of the connection of Tarantula and Tarantella with the city of Taranto. He claims that large furry spiders received such a name precisely because they are found just next to Taranto.

Tarantula’s poison is considered more dangerous than it really is, although those who were biting this spider assure that the bite of this arthropus causes only a slight burning sensation. In the Middle Ages, it happened that there were outbreaks of some epidemic of wild dances. It began with one person, and ended with the fact that entire crowds of people jumped and jumped to exhaustion.

The Italians believed that this was a consequence of the bite of the tarantula, and therefore this crazy dance allegedly called Tarantella. I repeat: this is only a version! It is only known that both words - both Tarantula and Tarantella - come from the name of the Italian city of Taranto.