The Revival of Ritual and Performance in Italy: The Example of Tarantella and Tarantismo

Laura Biagi, New York University

In the 1960s and 1970s, the folk revival movement in Italy involved literature, cinema, music, and dance. It was a mirror of the socio-political transformations of the country since the end of World War II, and it translated politics into performance. In this talk, Ph.D. candidate Laura Biagi gives a general overview of the movement and the first and second waves of revival in Salento (1970s-90s), focusing particularly on the example of local tarantella and tarantismo