Pizzica pizzica dance

The Pizzica pizzica (pinch) is a dance and a musical genre with a frenetic rhythm that was once linked closely to the phenomenon of Tarantismo. It was believed that some people, most often women, who demonstrated various recurring psychological symptoms (not epilepsy), had been bitten by a taranta, a mysterious spider whose existence has never been proved. These women could be cured, at least temporarily, by music with a frenetic rhythm, the Pizzica pizzica, that sent them into a trance, dancing to exhaustion and performing actions such as attacking people dressed in a particular colour. After a period when the Pizzica pizzica was being isolated, because it was considered an element of cultural backwardness and for this reason reserved for the outcasts of society, beginning in the 1970s the musical style was rediscovered and now it is the most popular dance rhythm of the young and a big international festival is organized every year in Melpignano.