The+History+Of+The+Tarantella

Originally, the [|Tarantella] was an Italian fork dance of lower to middle classes. The Tarantella has gone by many odd spellings such as Tarentule, Tarantel, Tarantella, and Tarentella. The name essentially means "Tarantula Spider" in English. There are three sources for the origination of this dance: 1. One is the bite of the Tarantula, Arania or Apulian Spider, or Wolf Spider - Tarantula being the most popular. The dance was used apparently to cure the bite of the spider//.// The bite of the spider was presumed to make one hallucinaate. The town's folk will play music while the afflicted person would dance nonstop, to ward off the spider's venom. 2. Others say when bitten, the Tarantula spider's venom would make the person uncontrollably move about as if dancing. In 1374, an "Outbreak of Dancing in the Middle Ages " was referred to as the St. Vitus Dance. It went unexplained until the realization that these dancers had been bitten by the Tarantula spider. 3. The Third story is of the town's named Toranto and Tarentum, its supposed origin. Women working in the fields who would be bit by the Tarantula spider would dance off the venom. It is said that having been found that profuse perspiration, which seemed to force the poison out through the pores of the body, was the only remedy for the bite of this venomous spider, and as exercise was their chief means of inducing perspiration. Many believed back then that this spider's bite was deadly, and during those times there was no anti-venim available.

==="Love and pleasure are apparent throughout this dance. Each motion, each gesture, is made with the most voluptuous gracefulness. Animated by the accompanying mandolins, tambourines and castanets, the woman tries, by her rapidity and liveliness, to excite the love of her partner, who, in his turn, endeavors to charm her with his agility, elegance, and demonstrations of tenderness."===