Tarantella & Tammurriata - Dances, Stories and Songs to Pass Down to the Next Generation - February 16, 2025

February 16, 2025 3-5 PM - to view photos and videos from this event, please click here.

Dances, Stories and Songs to pass down to the next generation is conceived to create a bridge between the historically Italian community in Williamsburg and the more recent community of artists who are living and/or working in the neighborhood. 

During the 2 hour encounter, we discovered and learn the origins and the social anthropology behind  "La Tarantella" through a lecture and video presentation by Anabella Lenzu.   

Photographer Todd Carroll presented "Nel Cerchio Magico” (Inside the Magic Circle) a photographic exhibition made In Italy during the popular festivals, and show the folk dances with some of the surrounding traditions.

After the introduction we learned "La Tammurriata" and the family of dances derived from the Tarantella family. La Tammurriata is an Italian folk dance that people who live in Southern Italian still dance today in festivals. La Tammurriata is one dance among several in the larger family of tarantella.

About our Guest Lecturers:

Originally from Argentina, Anabella Lenzu is a dancer, choreographer, scholar, and educator with over 30 years of experience working in Argentina, Chile, Italy, and the USA. 

Lenzu directs her own company, Anabella Lenzu/DanceDrama, which since 2006 has presented 400 performances, created 15 choreographic works and performed at 100 venues, presenting thought provoking and historically conscious dance-theater in NYC.

As a choreographer, she has been commissioned all over the world for opera, TV programs, theatre productions, and by many dance companies. She has produced and directed several award-winning short dance films and screened her work in over 200 festivals both nationally and internationally.

She holds a MFA in Fine Arts (concentration in Choreography) from Wilson College, PA. Classically trained at the renowned Teatro Colòn in Buenos Aires, Lenzu studied the modern dance techniques of Humphrey/Limòn and Graham in New York. Her studies of Tango and the folk dances of Argentina, Spain, and Italy, further inform her work.

Lenzu founded her own dance school L’Atelier Centro Creativo de Danza in 1994 in Argentina, and as an educator for more than 30 years, she has been teaching in more than 50 institutions, including universities, professional dance studios, companies, festivals, and symposiums in the USA, Canada, Ireland, Egypt, Australia, Panamá, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, London, and Italy.

In 2023, Anabella received the National Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Independent Sector by NDEO (National Dance Education Organization) and in 2022, the Innovative Dance Educator Award by NYSDEA (New York State Dance Education Association), acknowledging her work as a dance educator who develops innovative pedagogy in the dance field, groundbreaking teachings that have a significant impact on dance, as well as an established record of exemplary leadership on the state and national level in USA.Lenzu has written for various dance and arts magazines and published her first book in 2013, entitled Unveiling Motion and Emotion. The book contains writings in Spanish and English on the importance of dance, community, choreography, and dance pedagogy. Her second book, Teaching Dance through Meaningful Gestures, is expected in 2025.

Todd Carroll, a professional photographer and educator with over 30 years experience, presently maintains a photo-studio in Brooklyn, New York, where he works freelance for various international magazines and publications, as well as his personally driven projects. 

He obtained a Masters of Professional Studies in Digital Photography Degree from SVA in NYC in 2009 and currently works and teaches classes there.