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The Italian Tarantella Dance

Tarantella. Alexandre Thomas Francia. Date: by 1884. Medium: oil on canvas. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

By Middle Land Staff

August 11, 2025
3:59 pm
Los Angeles, CA

The tarantella is more than a quick-step dance with tambourines — it’s a living bundle of history, emotion and local identity. In Southern Italy, and especially around Naples, the tarantella has served as social glue, folkloric theatre, healing ritual, and a bold statement of regional pride. The tarantella is instantly recognizable: lively 6/8 or 12/8 rhythms, swaying couples or circling groups, bright strings and percussion. Yet beneath the cheerful surface there’s a layered past: pagan rites, medieval beliefs about spider-bites, courtship codes, and modern reclaiming of regional culture. In Naples — a city whose soul is equal parts joy and melancholy — the tarantella feels especially at home: loud, improvisational, communal, and unapologetically Neapolitan. The Neapolitan Tarantella is a traditional dance belonging to the much larger family of the

The tarantella is instantly recognizable: lively 6/8 or 12/8 rhythms, swaying couples or circling groups, bright strings and percussion. Yet beneath the cheerful surface there’s a layered past: pagan rites, medieval beliefs about spider-bites, courtship codes, and modern reclaiming of regional culture. In Naples — a city whose soul is equal parts joy and melancholy — the tarantella feels especially at home: loud, improvisational, communal, and unapologetically Neapolitan.

The Neapolitan Tarantella is a traditional dance belonging to the much larger family of the southern Tarantella; in Naples it is known as tammurriata to distinguish it from the other ethnic dances of southern Italy.

The Neapolitan Tararantella: origins and differences from other southern tarantellas

Drawing, Watercolor; Tarantella dancers, 1828. Horizontal rectangle. Two couples dance in the open to the music played by a man with a guitar and a woman with a tambourine. A woman with a baby is shown at right sitting in the middle distance at a slope. Mountainous country. Framing lines. Signature: “Gatta 1828.”. Date: 1828. Medium: pen and black ink and water colors on paper. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The Neapolitan tarantella is the most famous ethnic dance in Campania. What distinguishes the Neapolitan tarantella is that it is based on a rigidly binary rhythm, led by the drum called the “tammorra”. The dance should also be performed exclusively in pairs, and is based on the use of castanets, as the arms are one of the most used body parts for the dance. The Neapolitan tarantella is not only different from other tarantella across southern Italy, but there are stylistic differences within the region of Campania itself. In fact, there is no single rhythmic and artistic form of such a dance, some peculiar characteristics help us to understand the various differences and declinations of the dance.

Neapolitan Tarantella: local differences

The tarantella has a number of different styles, each rooted in a particular territory, characterizing its cultural identity. The first form of tarantella that we will analyze is the Giuglianese tarantella. This tarantella is known for its musical style that opts not only for tammorre, simple rhythms and voice, but also a characteristic flute called “Sisco”, from which the name “Siscariata” derives. The dance is a couple dance with continuous vaulting. The Vesuvian-Sarnese tarantella, for its part, is characterized by a large number of musicians and numerous instruments, with the accordion often present. Another characteristic of this form of tarantella is the presence of choral songs. Tarantella nocerina, on the other hand, has a much more decisive aspect in the use of the body, including pelvic movements, the bending of the legs or intense arm movements. Finally, we have the style of the tarantella of the Amalfi Coast. This style varies from the others in its rhythm that is composed of triplets. In this form of tarantella there are all the traditional instruments, including the accordion.