Come and experience the healing power of tarantella rhythms on frame drum and ritual dances with internationally renowned singer, percussionist, teacher and healer, Alessandra Belloni, Artist in Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City. This intensive healing workshop, featuring Southern Italian ritual dances and frame drum instruction, taps into a traditional healing modality used for centuries throughout the Mediterranean.Each day will begins with hands-on frame drum technique, followed by dance instruction, including the following healing trance dances and sacred song/percussion:-Drum technique for a deeper heart connection and expanded rhythmic language -Dance techniques that ground and connect one to the earth-Black Madonna folk tradition/sacred songs from Southern Italy, including fertility dances to Our Lady of Montevirgine in Naples, Italy-The dance and music of "San Rocco"- an Italian trance dance from Calabria that is related to Sufi whirling-Tarantella ritual dance and rhytm, a shamanic dance related to the Tarantula.-Sufi ritual whirling and sacred Sufi Chants in Arabic in honor of the Virgin Mary, known as Mariam.The ritual of the Pizzica Tarantella will be held at the end of the workshop on Sunday afternoon. This healing trance dance ritual from Southern Italy (Magna Graecia) was performed by Greek women called "Baccantes," in honor of Dionysus, the god of Ecstasy and wine. Women involved in these rites, later called Tarantate, used the ritual of the "Pizzica Tarantata" to heal from the heartbreak of unrequited love. We will learn the energetic movements and stomping of the ‘Pizzica,’ to a 12/8 rythymn on the frame drum. This dance is helpful in relieving stress, removing blockages of sexual energy, and opening the heart and throat chakras. We end this special ritual with whirling, breaking the imaginal webs that bind us.On Saturday, we will also learn a sensual rythym and dance from Naples on a large drum called the Tammorra. The dance movements, that have a strong Spanish and Middle Eastern flourish, are set to the beat of African 4/4 rhythms. The Tammorriata is based upon an improvisational style of drumming and singing usually enacted during the summer rituals in honor of the Black Madonna, originally for the ancient Earth Goddess Cybele.We also learn the 'Spinning Dance of San Rocco,' a dance originating in Calabria whose origins can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when it was used as a healing ritual to ward off the plague. The spinning motion has a direct relation to the Sema of the whirling dervishes.Cost $ 150 for workshop in advance - $ 170 at the door, plus accomodations.Email Abelloni@aol.com to register or online at https://www.everbutton.com/button/view/3735*Please wear white and red, the ritual colors of the Tarantate. Please do not wear black.