Previous events

Apr21

Tarantella Dance and Drumming Seminar

Cathedral of St John the Divine -St James Chapel, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue

Alessandra Bellon is very proud to announce a series of workshop at the Cathedral of St John the Divine -St James Chapel, 1047 Amsterdam Avenue - near 112 Street- Tarantella Dance and Drumming Seminar  April 7, April 14 and April 21 May 5th  at 1pm The all-inclusive course fee is $300 per participant.  Reservations are required and space is limited to 25  participants.  To reserve please email education@stjohndivine.org or call 212 932 7325. Alessandra Belloni, tambourine virtuoso considered one of the world’s best percussionists, is the only woman in the United States and Italy who specializes in the southern Italian traditional tambourine technique and tarantella rhythms.  She has taught drumming and dancing for the last thirty years and is an artist in residence at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine. This seminar shall give people the means to fortify themselves against daily stresses.  Students shall become empowered through discovery of the ancient art of frame drumming and a technique of music and dance therapy that shall enable them to discover the means to achieve homeostatic balance and inner relief of stress, while restoring spiritual and physical energy.   Each class is designed to follow the method described in Rhythm is the Cure. This enables students to continue their studies independently after the course is complete.  The course consists of four two-hour classes.  Students shall begin each session with an hour of drumming followed by an hour 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. The dance movements represent an unbroken chain of inspiration from pre-Christian times to the present.  They embody and culminate the different dance traditions that we know today as Flamenco, Belly Dance, and Tribal Dance.  Students shall be enraptured by these exciting and healing drumming and dancing.

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Apr18

Tarantella rhythms and steps

Italian American Museum, 155 Mulberry Street, New York, NY

Presents TARANTELLA RHYTHMS AND STEPS A Hands-On Tambourine & Frame Drum Workshop with Chanting and Dance From Alessandra Belloni's book: Rhythm is the Cure: Southern Italian Ritual Drumming Mel Bay Publications Conducted by Alessandra Belloni REMO Signature Series Artist www.alessandrabelloni.com www.youtube.com/alessandrabelloni The purpose of these workshops is to introduce general audiences to a rich tambourine and folk dance culture that is still practiced in Southern Italy today and also to bring women back in touch with their lost tradition of drumming. This second workshop will be a review of the techniques taught at the previous workshop such as the Tamorriata and will focus on the Tarantella fast 6/8 rhythms and its many variations. Alessandra will also teach chants and songs sung as devotion to the Black Madonna. During these tambourine workshops, the participants will learn: * The basic technique of holding the drum, with emphasis on arm movement, wrist and elbow technique, which requires strength to create the bouncing sound of the triplets. * Hand technique with the palm and the fingertips in both a basic and accented fast 6/8 rhythm. * Tammorriata: a 4/4 rhythm played on the large drum called the Tammorra, originally from Naples with a strong African influence in the rhythm. * Neapolitan, Sicilian, Calabrese and Pugliese style tarantellas, which involve different variations of hand technique including finger trills on the tambourine skin. * Rhythms of San Rocco: a healing trance 6/8 rhythm from Calabria performed in honor of San Rocco to free oneself from the fear of death by the plague during Medievel Times. * 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. * Tarantella alla Montemaranese: a carnival dance from Montemarano (Naples) played on the smaller tambourines with a very unusual syncopation on the 6/8. This rite of Carnival dates back to the Roman celebrations in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine. Alessandra Belloni and I Giullari Di Piazza successfully performed at The Navy Pier in Chicago and were presented by the Italian Cultural Institute. Please follow this link to view their live performance on ABC TV: http://abclocal.go.com/wls/ story?section=resources&id= 8592878 Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - 6:30pm - 9:30pm Italian American Museum 155 Mulberry Street New York, NY 10013 Suggested donation of $50 PLEASE RESERVE EARLY To reserve a place for this workshop please call the Italian American Museum at (212) 965-9000 or email: ItalianAmericanMuseum@gmail.com www.ItalianAmericanMuseum.org http://www.facebook.com/pages/Italian-American-Museum/90138502227 For information on the Museum's Travel Program, please call (718) 597-1414 or email: JRusso-Winner@ItalianAmericanMuseum.org The IAM is chartered by the University of the State of New York and has a 501(c)(3) designation from the IRS.

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A Day int he Italian Renaissance

A Day int he Italian Renaissance

long Island School of the Gifted, 165 Pidgeon hill Rd, Huntington, NY

A DAY IN THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE A special children’s workshop of Italian Renaissance Instruments, music , dance and Theatre of the Commedia dell’Arte:The actors will explain the Italian Renaissance history, talking about the painters, art, sculptures, explorers, music and theatre. The musicians will demonstrate instruments as recorders, viola, violin renaissance guitar, will demonstrate the masked character of the comical Renaissance theatre of Commedia dell’Arte such as Pulcinella, Arlecchino, Don Giovanni and the woman Ricciulina, they will teach the song with gestures typical of the Commedia character entitled Ricciulina, and the popular Renaissance dance tarantella del ‘600. Also available for schools is the children’s production of : THE ADVENTURES OF DON GIOVANNI AND HIS SERVANT ARLECCHINO" comic opera based on a 16th century Neapolitan Commedia dell'Arte manuscript, the play features the hilarious shenanigans of Pulcinella, his fiancee "Ricciulina", a servant who falls instead for his master Don Giovanni, and the servant Arlecchino, Ricciulina’s brother, who favors his sister match with the wealthy Don Giovanni rather than Pulcinella. As in the opera, Don Giovanni is punished in the end when he meets a ghost (giant puppet) and he’s taken to hell by the devil in a "dance macabre" This opera is featured at the CARAMOOR workshops, where children are inviteed to join singing and dancing the Tarantella with the "irresistible" Ricciulina. 

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