HANDS-ON TAMBOURINE & FRAME DRUM WORKSHOP

including special brush technique with Alessandra Belloni's tam-brush made by Pro-Mark

This fiery "percussive journey" through the South of Italy will explore through songs, dance and rhythm, magic rituals, tarantellas used as music therapy and exorcism, healing chants in honor of the Black Madonna, lullabies, love ballads, work chants and protest song.  The performance ends with the authentic Pizzzica Tarantata, the healing trance dance from Puglia used as an exorcism to cure the mythical bite of the tarantula, a mental disorder that afflicted mainly women, and which goes back to the ancient Greek rites of Dyonisus 

 A cross cultural collaboration of trance, rhythm, ritual drumming and chants. 

Outfitted with an extensive complement of exotic percussion instruments, tambourine virtuoso Alessandra Belloni and Drummer Sergio Bellotti, both originally from Southern Italy, embark on a new collaboration celebrating and exploring the rhythmic similarities between southern Italy and other cultures by blending tambourines and frame drums with drum set, and other percussion instruments.  With music ancient and new, Belloni and Bellotti create a bridge between ancient rituals and modern rhythms into a vibrant musical tapestry.  Brazilian ritual drumming, chants and trance dance, putting a new spin to original and traditional arrangements from the musical backgrounds. 

Taught by Alessandra Belloni REMO Signature Series Artist and designers of brushes with Pro-Mark

Alessandra Belloni is the only woman in America (and in Italy) who uses this powerful tambourine style combined with the singing and dancing, and she’s very proud to be able to bring this ancient healing women tradition back to life.

The purpose of this workshop is to introduce general audiences to a very rich tambourine and folk dance culture with an active current performance practice in Southern Italy.

 During the percussion workshop, the participants will learn:

 * The basic technique of holding the drum, with emphasis on arm movement, wrist and elbow technique, which requires a lot of 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. 

* 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 Bacchus, the god of wine.

• 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.  This wild rhythm, played mainly by women on medium size tambourines with a double row of jingles as they frantically danced for days during the Summer Solstice
• Brazilian rhythms with Southern Italian tambourine technique using also special Tambourine brushes (Tam brush) especially designed by Alessandra Belloni with Pro-Mark.  The length of the workshops should be 2 to 4 hours, divided into two parts.

 The tambourines for the workshops can be made available through REMO.