Drums of Illumination | Casa Italiana Zerilli / Marimò

Drums of Illumination

Concert
Wed, 09/12/2018 - 6:30pm
Southern Italian & Native American Ritual Drumming and Dance
Image of Alessandra Belloni performing

A world peace celebration, presented by Alessandra Belloni & I Giullari di Piazza, with special guests The SilverCloud Native American Singers & Dancers.

In Drums of Illumination, Alessandra Belloni unites two great cultures: the powerful Native American and the passionate Southern Italian, for a journey back in time into a world of ritual drumming, voice and trance dances.

The evening will feature Tarantellas from Southern Italy, including the authentic Pizzica Tarantata, a healing trance dance from Puglia used to cure the bite of the tarantula (a myth that dates back to the ancient Greek rites of Dyonisus), healing chants and drumming in honor of the Black Madonna and the Goddess of Love and the Sea; Native American ritual singing and drumming, love songs, warrior dances, and the amazing Indian hoop dance, performed by Josephine Tarrant. 

Featuring:
Alessandra Belloni, vocals, percussion, ritual dance
Peter Abazia, drumset
Joe Deninzon, violin
Francesca Silvano & Peter de Geronimo, ritual dancers
Kevin Tarrant, lead vocals, pow wow drum
Murielle Borst, vocals, drums
Josephine Tarrant, vocals

Outfitted with an extensive complement of exotic percussion instruments, and both Remo Artists, tambourine virtuoso Alessandra Belloni and drummer Sergio Bellotti (drum teacher at Berklee School of Music in Boston), both from Southern Italy, have enjoyed a long collaboration celebrating and exploring the rhythmic similarities between Southern Italian and other cultures by blending various percussion instruments. With music both ancient and new, Belloni and Bellotti create a bridge between ancient rituals and modern rhythms into a vibrant musical tapestry.

Murielle Borst, Artistic Director of The SilverCloud Singers and Dancers, also distinguished herself in her one-woman show "More Than Feathers and Beads," which was nominated for a Rockefeller grant and selected to participate in the Global Indigenous Theater Festival in Sydney Australia, as well as several venues in NYC.   She has completed six books in her fantasy series, "The Star Song Carriers."   Borst and Belloni, "soul sisters" who share the same energy and spiritual beliefs, first collaborated in 1992 on I Giullari di Piazza's "Earth, Sun and Moon," commissioned by Lincoln Center and performed for years in NYC and on tour.  

The SilverCloud Singers and Dancers is an intertribal Native American troup weaving  the traditional with the contemporary Native American song and dance.   Founded in 1991, the company is named in tribute to Josephine Mofsie Tarrant, mother of the founding directors.   The singers come from many tribes, and many parts of the U.S. and Canada.   They have appeared in numerous Pow-Wows across the continent as well as in tours to Europe.