The Hypnotizing Tammurriata
Do not try to learn the moves. Become an animal
If you ever visit south Italy, make an effort to find and experience tammurriata. It is one of the most haunting, archaic dances that leaves you speechless in its beauty, energy and expression. One dancer told me: do not try to learn the moves. Pretend to be an animal.
Tammurriata is not only a dance, but the ritual and the event surrounding it. Best way to experience tammurriata is on small village festivals, often connected to the religious events. They happen all the time during Summer and also Carnival, but are not easy to plan in advance. You won’t find much online. You just need to go and ask around.
Tammurriata is danced in pairs (originally, often two men). Castagnete are being held in hands. Sometimes just one couple dances, surrounded by a circle of spectators. Sometimes many couples dance side by side.
During the prolonged intro, the singer builds up the tension. At some point, the tammorra (the drum) stars the devilish rhythm, and the dancers immediately start synchronizing their movement with the phrase. The prolonged last syllable, la votata, is the signal for the dancers to enter into a sort of vortex, the climax of the energy. Then the dancers separate and start anew.
In the two videos I share here, you may compare two different styles of tammurriata.
The first video above is tammurriata concert, on a small festival Ballinsé. What you can see in the audience after the drumming starts is the popular variant of the dance, which many people know.
The second video, below is tammurriata terzignese, an archaic version of the dance that survived in just one village. It is hypnotizing. The animalistic expression and almost mystical synchronization of two dancers is just so different from what we think of as “dance” today.
Mario, one of the performers, told me he learned it from his grandfather. I inquired more about something that interests me a lot: how quickly the tradition evolves, and how much of his personal style Mario introduced in the dance. His answer was straightforward and confident: Io e mio nonno balliamo uguale. (Myself and my grandpa, we dance identically).
Post Scriptum
Dance and music, in its participative form is an important part of my travel. Find more on my NomadicMind YouTube channel. Those are ad-hoc recordings that do not prefer to be professional, but they are real. Subscribe there - I will be gradually adding more from my archives.
Also, read more Italian stories here.
Pablo, this is glorious. I can feel the la votata swirling in my bones just reading your description.
I had a flashback while reading this, not to a village festival in Southern Italy (though now firmly on my list), but to my dad and his djembe drum, with our deranged dog howling along in what can only be described as a kind of Scandinavian soul-exorcism. I swear they had their own votata going.
There’s something beautifully raw in what you’ve described, the way the rhythm becomes a possession, the dancers sync up like they’re being summoned by something older than language. The idea that you can’t plan a Tammurriata, only stumble into it, feels exactly right. Like a psychological breakthrough, you never know when it’s coming, but when it hits, you feel it.
Thank you for sharing this.
Siggy
I appreciate the restack Steven!