This book was awarded a Special Mention Citation in the 2010 competition for the 'de la Torre
Bueno Prize' by The Society of Dance History Scholars. In the region of Salento in Southern
Italy the music and dance of the pizzica has been used in the ritual of tarantism for many
centuries as a means to cure someone bitten by the taranta spider. This book a historical and
ethnographic study of tarantism and pizzica draws upon seven hundred years of writings about
the ritual contributed by medical practitioners scientists travel writers and others. It also
investigates the contemporary revival of interest in pizzica music and dance as part of the
'neo-tarantism' movement where pizzica and the history of tarantism form a complex web of
place culture and identity for Salentines today. This is one of the first books in English to
explore this fascinating ritual practice and its contemporary resurgence. It uses an
interdisciplinary framework based in performance studies to ask wider questions about the
experience of the body in performance and the potential of music and dance to create a sense
of personal and collective transformation and efficacy.
