Community Chat

[coffee drinker]

That's certainly not the way the Tarantella is done at Italian weddings!!!

[shoekitty]

The tarentella are a series of different folk dances.  It is her interetation I am guessing.  The dance is suppose to represent the bite of a tarantula.  As the venum spreads, the hectic and frenzied dancing gets wilder.  Awful to actually think about, but that is what I have known a tarantella dance to represent.

[VegasBusinessWoman]

@Oznell  What a remarkable piece!

You're right about the abandon, the sheer joy the dancer seems to feel while performing.  Thanks for posting this.  I'm sure I'd never have seen it otherwise, and I'd have been the poorer for it.

[Oznell]

Delighted, @VegasBusinessWoman --  that's my feeling about it too!

[Lindsays Grandma]

         So light on her feet, effortless, mesmerizing.

[Oznell]

Yes!  @Lindsays Grandma, your "light on her feet",  "effortless" description ties right back to @Bird mama saying she was bird-like, flitting about.  That's the perfect imagery for her.

[arrabella]

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@Carmie wrote:

I went to an Italian grade school.  We were all taught to do the tarantella and performed it often on stage for others.

When we go to Italian weddings, my friends and I and generations ahead of us still do this dance.  This dance is part of my heritage.

The  ballet is not the tarantella we do, but it is a beautiful version of it. We do the folk version with tambourines.

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I too remember my family diong the tatantella at weddings and family get togethers.  So many fond memories.  The ballet version was breath taking.

[Oznell]

What fun to have a vibrant dance like this as part of your family heritage, @arrabella and @CARMIE!

(edited to correct spelling!)

[SANNA]

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@Oznell wrote:

Ekaterina Maximova:

There's a weirdly fascinating twitter site called "Soviet Visuals",  where I first encountered this obscure but compelling little clip of Ekaterina Maximova dancing the "Tarantella" segment of the ballet "Anjuta".   I think it ran on Russian TV.  

I think you'd only ever have seen this rare short clip if you were in Russia in the Eighties.  There's something of such abandonment in her dancing-- despite the sedate set and lovely traditional costumes, there's a kind of "wild", kaleidoscopic quality to this scene, I found it so watchable.  But maybe you'd have to be an avid ballet fan, ha:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e4bSOikvrY

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Maximova and her husband/partner Vladimir Vasiliyev were among the best dancers in the world . They worked at Bolshoy in Moscow and created the amazing array of performances. Check y tube for the scenes from “Spartacus “ and other ballets.

I am a huge fan of classical ballet....

[Oznell]

Hey, thank you @SANNA, I'll look up "Spartacus".   She truly is superb.