What is the pizzica ?

It is the traditional expression of the Salento dance; a dance, almost a ritual practiced by the humblest people, dedicated to the hardest jobs, who in times of celebration would gather, and dancing and singing would spend the hours to forget the exhausting labors of daily life. It is a courtship dance during which two dancers approach each other but never touch.
The woman leads the dance, who by serving small escapes, darts, sudden stops and restarts, teases the man to chase her, to “chase” her gently.

A light brushing, an exchange of more or less provocative glances, a series of gestures emphasize the man’s desire “to get into the good graces” of the woman and her desire to be courted by the beloved to whom, however, she escapes if the latter tries to approach her. Of central importance is the handkerchief that the woman waves as a sign of elegant provocation in the eyes of the man, who, however, cannot take it except with the beloved’s consent.

The couple’s dance is supported by the “patrol,” a circle consisting of dancers, musicians and spectators: the circle represents perfection and thus the external energy that is poured out on the couple. With its mysteries and rituals today, the pizzica has the right to be rediscovered and known by all those who want to let flow into themselves the energy and strength that such a dance can release. A dance passed down informally for centuries, today studied and codified so that it may survive forever in the memory and history of our people.

History and legend of the pizzica

The pizzica originated as therapeutic music played by men inside homes (or in squares) to free the “le pizzicate” ( women that were sick by spider venom ) from the bite of the taranta (Lycosa tarantula a mighty spider ) , the Salento term for the tarantula, which had a reputation for pinching women under their robes during harvest time. The music they used was intended to make the women dance to the extreme, so as to kill the spider and free the maidens from the discomfort caused by the bite. This dance was later referred to as “pizzica tarantata” precisely to indicate the type of dance and what it was caused by. Today the use of this term remains to indicate the particular dance caused by the tarantula, although it is actually called solely by the name of the animal that causes the movement.
We come , now, to its almost ancestral anthropological meaning : a dance that introduced the theme of challenge , almost of battle seen as a race to find one’s adult place in the world .

THE PIZZICA-SCHERMA

In order to understand the meaning of the term “Pizzica-Scherma,”

it is necessary to consider two factors of considerable importance:

the feast of St. Rocco and the presence of the Roma or Zingare peoples,

who settled in the Lower Salento beginning in the second half of the 15th century.

On August 15 and 16 of each year, in a hamlet of Ruffano, Torrepaduli, a livestock fair is organized alongside the festivities in honor of the saint, of great renown in times past for both peasants and Roma, traditionally devoted to raising and selling animals, especially horses. Between two such socially different worlds natural becomes the comparison and inevitable a mingling of the two cultures: on the musicality and rhythm of the pizzica sung and danced by the peasants

Later , Gypsies adapted one of their typical dances, the Sword Dance precisely, creating a new choreutic-musical expression known as Pizzica-Scherma.
Within a circular space, called the “Ronda,” which is intended for dancing and made up of musicians and aspiring dancers, two men, with their heads, wrists and ankles adorned with characteristic colored ribbons, called “zigaredde,” confront each other in a real duel to the sound of tambourines and harmonica.

No weapons are used today: only the index and middle fingers of the hand, joined and protruding, simulate the knives of yesteryear. The complex ceremonial of the dance includes, after the opening greeting between the duelists, the transition to a phase of studying the opponent, culminating in the “call” position: that is, when one incites the other to strike by making a sign with the fingers toward one’s chest. The winner is the one who first touches the opponent one to three times, who defeated exits the round.
Fencing, even today, is a valuable tool for Roma families to settle internal disputes and assert the supremacy of one group over the other. In this context, the feast of St. Roch becomes the ideal setting for the duel: in fact, through the challenge, social tensions are made public and resolved without bloodshed. Whoever wins, gets satisfaction in front of everyone’s eyes for the wrong done to him and receives the respect of the community, which recognizes him as the strongest.