Meaning+of+the+Tarantella

The tarantella is a folk dance  from southern Italy, from a place where there were many tarantulas. They believed that the [|bite of the tarantula]caused people to jump around wildly. This gave rise to the movements found in the tarantella-- some even believed that the dance would cure the bite of the spider. This was all long ago, but the dance has evolved from those beginnings. The peasant costumes would be some designer's idea of the native costume worn in that area of Italy. The tarantella has a very interesting [|history]. Its name derives from a little southern town of Italy called Taranto. It was believed that if a spider called the tarantula bit the townspeople, the only way to survive its bite was to do a dance called the Tarantella. The locals believed this was the only cure. If the people bitten did not dance they would suffer severe pain, muscle spasms, vomiting; most eventually died. There were not any drugs that could counteract the venom. Many believed that the sweating associated with the dance flushed the venom from the dancer's bodies. They would continue dancing for hours and even days. It was so common that musicians patrolled the fields where most of the bites took place in expectation of being hired to play for the injured. Just as the dancer is trying to get rid of the venom, Nora was trying to rid herself of the deadly outside poison.

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