Tarantism & the Legend of the Tarantella

The dance of the tarantella comes from the phenomenon of ‘taratism.’ Tracing back to 15th century Taranto in the Puglia region of Italy, taratism was said to be caused by a wolf spider bite, resulting in convulsions, delusions, and hysteria. Typically women of lower socioeconomic statuses were affected. The victim was called the ‘tarantata,’ and the only cure to save the tarantata from their wound was dance–that’s how tarantella was born.

Tarantella was authentically a healing practice rather than a technical art form at first. The tarantata would often be surrounded by musicians that would play lively music to encourage a dance frenzy. The spider’s victim would dance until they physically could not anymore for hours, or even days, at a time. At the point of ultimate exhaustion, the tarantata was deemed cured.

The hysteria of tarantism spread from Taranto into other sections of Puglia, and even into as south as Sicily. It was said that tarantism became so common that musicians would roam fields in the hopes of making some change to help the affected. The mania eventually died out due to claims of the practice’s invalidity by doctors and scholars, but some portions of the Mediterranean still practice cure through dance today.

Technically, the frantic result of tarantism is the most authentic version of tarantella. Most importantly, the legend and spirit behind tarantella is what makes its later adaptations authentic (or not)–specifically recognition of the spider bite and female pride.

The craze of tarantism died out a couple centuries after its emergence due to condemnation of the tarantella as a cure by doctors. Doctors found that the wolf spider bite was, in fact, not poisonous, and inflicted no more harm than swollenness at the site of the bite. Subsequently, the narrative surrounding tarantella switched from a way to heal to an insane gesture as tarantatas became viewed as manic women. Suddenly, it became taboo to dance tarantella or even claim its effectiveness. Today, psychologists view the craze as a mass hysteria. Even if tarantism itself may not ave been ‘real,’ the healing impacts through tarantella certainly were. It is hypothesized that women of lower socioeconomic statuses used tarantism as a way to express their pent up emotions. They gained power through the dance and brought together a community along the way. Oftentimes, phenomena such as tarantism are invalidated by rigid ways of thought, yet this practice demonstrates the importance of the performing arts, and its impacts on how we live and survive.