September 27 – 29, 2024. The Italian Cultural Institute of Washington is glad to announce the participation of Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino to the 20th edition of the Richmond Folk Festival this fall in Richmond, VA. For more information please visit the event’s web page here.   Formed by writer Rina Durante in 1975, Canzoniere Grecanico Salentin...

Indefatigable after 40 years at the helm of Giordano Dance Chicago, Nan Giordano continues to advance the legacy of her father, jazz-dance pioneer Gus Giordano. Nan Giordano says she’s blessed with a high level of energy — energy that enables her to dance, mentor dancers and produce performances, but also to run the business side of an arts organiz...

ὕβρις. It’s one of the most recurrent terms of Greek literature, especially the texts of the tragedies. Literally translated as pride, haughtiness, or insolence, ὕβρις is most often associated with those who dare defy the gods, committing the sin of ὕβρις against them. The young commoner Arachne, as Ovid recounts in the Metamorphoses, thought herse...

The advent of spring can mean just one thing – the return of Compagnia Opus Ballet, direct from Florence, Italy, for a new performance with Florida's own Dance NOW! Miami. On Sunday, March 17, at 3 pm, the two ensembles will share the stage of the Miami Theater Center in Miami Shores. The afternoon will include a new, joint version of Gli Altri/The...

March 12, 2024 | 7 pm (doors open at 6:30 pm). Club Fugazi, 678 Green Str., San Francisco (CA). REGISTER HERE. Artemis Danza Company dedicates Monica Casadei‘s new artistic project to the representation, investigation and contemporary interpretation of four fascinating heroines immortalized by the composer from Lucca: Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Mimì...

Wagner College Theatre is presenting a special ballet on its Stage One in December, and dance enthusiasts and fans of Wagner performances are invited to attend. “Morso D’Amore” — a ballet powerful for its use of confrontation and subterfuge — will be presented on Stage One on Dec. 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m., and on Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. Admission is free. Th...

The sultry heat, sand blowing in the morning air, and the parched land of Salento, a small sub region in Apulia. The women here, bent over to work in the fields, are marked by fatigue. A tarantula bites one of their ankles, so she runs to grab a tambourine and dance without inhibition, until all the poison finally exits her body. This turns out to...

What if we momentarily forgot the history of the construction of Palermo’s Teatro Lirico Vittorio Emanuele, better known as Massimo, and instead let our imaginations run wild, playing detectives to unravel the enigma behind the inscription on the entrance pediment? Would two or three days at most (“due o tre giorni al Massimo”) suffice to uncover t...

The Clarksburg History Museum is hosting an exhibit titled “Passo dopo Passo”—which means step by step in Italian—and Museum officials are hoping it will spark interest and passion for Italian dance and culture. Museum officials said that they’re welcoming the public to learn about the preserved heritage of Italian dance with the exhibition that is...

When Antonio Castrignanò listens to pizzica, he hears much more than tambourines and drums. “This music really feels like a dream,” is how the musician and composer puts it. “It gives dignity to the sacrifices my people made for their own freedom, to no longer be inferior to anyone.” It’s an emotion other natives of Salento would doubtless understa...