Rhythm Is the Cure Classes:
Healing Frame Drumming of Southern Italy
You Can Now Dive Deeply into the Powerful Tarantella Rhythms of Ancient Music and Dance Therapy!
Alessandra Belloni, World Renowned Percussionist & co-founder of I GIULLARI DI PIAZZA Italian Music & Theater Company, artist in residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, is now offering weekly virtual Ritual Frame Drumming classes!
Following the method outlined in the Book/DVD RHYTHM IS THE CURE
published by Mel Bay Publications
Class sessions will be 12 lessons divided in 4 parts.
and will be held on Zoom weekly, for 90 minutes, and will be recorded.
You must register in advance at the links below and group space is limited.
Class Description:
We will trace this style of percussion through the ages, from its ancient Greek roots, through the Italian Middle Ages and Renaissance, and its relevance today. We will study and practice basic “tarantella tamburello“ techniques: holding the drum with emphasis on arm movement, hand technique for triplets, and the 6/8 and 4/4 rhythms. We will also address the variations of hand technique from the different regions of Southern Italy as:
Tammorriata: A 4/4 rhythm played on the large drum called the Tammorra, originally from Naples with a strong African influence in the rhythm, played in honor of the Black Madonna, to accompany a beautiful ritual dance. Originated in ancient times for the Earth Mother Goddsses Cybele & Isis.
Rhythm & Dance of San Rocco: A Medieval healing 6/8 rhythm from Calabria done in honor of San Rocco to send away the plague and danced in circle spinning.
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, played on medium size tambourines with a double row of jingles as people frantically danced for days during the Summer Solstice. This rhythm and dance date back to the ecstatitic rites of Dionysus, as Southern Italy was part of Greece known as Magna Grecia.
Classes will follow the books:
Class Schedule:
- Monday 6pm ET: Advanced Rhythm is the Cure Drumming Class
- Wednesday 6:30pm ET: Beginner Rhythm is the Cure Drumming Class
- Thursday 5:30pm ET: Intermediate/Advanced Rhythm is the Cure Drumming Class
Class Registration:
In order to register and receive the zoom link for classes: Email alessandrabelloni@gmail.com indicating the class day and level you would like to join (ie: "Wednesday Beginner's class"). Then please submit payment for your class through the methods listed below. You will then receive a zoom link to join class, as well as a private youtube link of the class recording.
**It is highly recommended to sign up for a series of at least 4 classes to adequately learn the technique**
Payment Methods:
Payment must be received prior to the start of class. You can pay using VENMO, ZELLE or this link: https://www.everbutton.com/
Group classes - $50 a piece
Package of 4 Classes - $160 ($40 a piece)
Drumming Lesson Videos
TESTIMONIALS OF ALESSANDRA BELLONI’S ONLINE DRUMMING AND CHANTING CLASSES
Ricky Bratz, Herbalist & Integrative Healing Arts Practitioner
I've been incredibly fortunate to have the pleasure of learning from Alessandra Belloni, one of the best! Alessandra is a master performer and a profoundly inspired artist. She's also a patient and skillful teacher who always knows how to challenge us. I find her performances and workshops deeply inspirational. -- Cindy Carroll
I love online drum classes with Alessandra! Because I don't live in New York, this is an incredible opportunity to study with her and group classes make it more affordable for me. It is also fun to be part of a community to study and encourage each other. Each time Alessandra gives feedback to another participant, it is helpful for me to keep refining my technique and skill. Alessandra weaves storytelling, chanting, prayer, singing, and the technique of learning to play the frame drum into her classes. She is patient and encouraging and a very skilled instructor. The experience has been much more than I could have hoped for and is part of my own personal healing and ancestral re-connection journey. I am proud to have Alessandra as my teacher and mentor in these ancient healing traditions!
Cazimi Healing
ricky@cazimihealing.com
www.cazimihealing.com
Testimonial Mary Beth Bonfiglio – writer – herbalist coach
Working with Alessandra has changed the ecosystem of my life, my body, and my ancestral bodies. I have long been involved in ancestral and cultural reclamation, connection and healing work, but had not tapped into the musical rituals, specifically the southern Italian drumming and dancing, that my culture has always known, always embodied, has always used as powerful medicine, offering and veneration. It was the piece of my path that brought everything else together— there is so much stuck in the body (both the individual and collective body) and the movement, song and drumming that Alessandra generously and magically guides us through is a powerful way to unravel, reveal and alchemize trauma. Alessandra is the real deal, raw, honest, funny, Italian as they come— and— a deeply rooted master healer and teacher of ancient rhythms. Through her work with drumming, rituals and dance, she is bringing fast spreading awareness to this necessary work in the world. I might add we have always needed this work for our ancestral healing, but especially in these times, I find it to be extra powerful and potent: we are all in desperate need of reconnection to the earth, The Mother. We are all being asked to find, practice, and share our cultural medicines with the world. I am so grateful to have been able to be a student of Alessandra's for the last 4 months. It was a prayer answered by my ancestors, no doubt. To work with Alessandra is a true gift from beyond.
Marianne Grasselli Meier – Swiss writer, teacher healer
"Alessandra est une enseignante brillante et accessible. Elle sait nous mettre en confiance, même si nous débutons dans cet apprentissage. Pas à pas, elle sait suivre chacun des participants avec tact. Avec générosité, elle partage également ses connaissances des rythmes traditionnels de l'Italie du Sud et ses enregistrements, ce qui nous permet d'avancer entre les cours. Les sessions en ligne sont agréables, fluides et créent de vrais complicités entre les participants. Que l'on soit débutant ou déjà percussionniste, ces cours vont vous enchanter".
"Alessandra is a brillant and accessible teacher. She knows how to make us confident, even if we are beginners. Step by step, she follows each participant. With her legendary generosity she shares her wisdom from the south of Italy's rythmes. Her recordings help us to work besides the courses. The on-line sessions are fluid, nice to follow and even create a subtil complicity between participants. You are beginner or already percusionnist: these courses will enchant you."
Kara Wood herbalist- therapist :
For years I have wanted to attend a workshop (in person) with Alessandra, but geography and timing got in the way.
Since the shelter in place began this past spring, I have had the fantastic experience of being a student of Alessandra. Thanks to zoom, I have been able to honor and celebrate my Calabrian ancestors and heritage by learning my ancestral drumming, dance and chanting.
I look forward to each Thursday afternoon when I, along with 5 other women in my Southern Italian American diasporic community, have our wonderful healing, soul nourishing drumming lesson with Alessandra.
The knowledge, experience and wisdom Alessandra possesses is unparalleled. I am honored to learn from her.
As a folk herbalist (I teach this southern Italian tradition), and as an ancestral memory and healing connector, the work that Alessandra does is paramount to the healing process of ancestral trauma. I always recommend her to my students.
In the past 4 months that I have studied with her, I have felt a profound shift inside me, another layer of healing, release, memory, reclamation and understanding.
I am grateful to Alessandra for all she offers, I am grateful to the Black Madonna for all she embodies, I am grateful to my ancestors for guiding me on this healing journey with Alessandra.
I have been a fan and an occasional workshop student of Alessandra Belloni for decades. Being on the west coast, I never imagined that I would get a chance to study regularly with her. As I write these words, I have been taking weekly classes online with Alessandra for four months, and it is no exaggeration to say that it has been life-altering. Alessandra has a gift for group instruction that shines through in person and online, and our 90+ minutes together are packed with challenging, culturally-contextualized material with plenty to practice in between meetings. There is a well-balanced mix of technique and songs (and occasional singing), and a healthy dose of warmth, support and community among her and her students. I came to class already a percussionist, musician, dancer and teacher in other styles, but ripe and ready to do a deeper dive into traditions from my own Southern Italian and Sicilian roots. Working with Alessandra regularly has moved my personal, ancestral, musical, rhythmic and spiritual education forward in ways I couldn't have imagined, and opened doors and possibilities I can't wait to explore further.
-Monica Berini, San Francisco, California
July 2020