About a year ago I met a young and talented Mr. Michael Castrogiovanni at an Alessandra Belloni Drumming (Tambourine) and Tarantella workshop. I had gone to the workshop to meet and interview Alessandra and to see her work but instead found myself completely wrapped up with the work that she and co-facilitator Michael were doing.
Alessandra uses and teaches many techniques, including tarantella, pizzica, more specifically, and drumming (tambourining) to help a person use his or her body to achieve an altered state at best, or at least a heightened awareness and tension release. These are ancient techniques practiced by our Italian, and more specifically our Sicilian and Neapolitan ancestors, that she is reviving all over the world.
There is so much I could say about this after studying with Alessandra the following two days. It was especially interesting to me because my Nonna used to drum, or play the tambourine, in rhythms that Alessandra demonstrated but were too advanced for the class for her to teach. In a similar way Michael's interest in this work and study seemed to extend from his interest in his heritage and his understanding of body movement and it's effect on a person's physical health and mental, emotional and even spiritual health.
I was taken by his interest in bringing back some of these ancient traditions that are part of our heritage. Part of his role in the workshop was to guide the group through body movement exercises in order to prepare us for the rhythmic dances and steps we would be doing, but also the potential trance states we would achieve.This ends up being part of what he does professionally on his own, from personal training to bodywork, his methods are all about body movement, even in weight training.
After the workshop Alessandra, Michael and I ended up having dinner together and Alessandra shared with me other projects she had going, that I have since been a part of, and Michael shared with me some of the bodywork modalities he uses to help people. It took almost a year, but finally today, I was able to experience this genius at work.
I have had bodywork and massages before with the use of varying modalities, and I have had some amazing results and experiences with some and some okay experiences with others. This was one of the amazing ones, and a new one on me. Michael used his whole body to twist and shape my body into positions that I did not know I could achieve, and frankly could not have achieved on my own. In so doing, he helped me and my body release energy, pressure, stress, from bone, muscles and technically, cells, that certainly had been stagnate for years.
He sculpted my body like his namesake the famous Italian renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. Thankfully, however, I am not a David, my hands are not that big, and that nose....I write about Michael not just because he is an Italian-American but because I noticed when I met him and now again through this work that he is a young Italian-American on the rise. He has ideas, visions, dreams, hopes and goals to use his learnings and techniques, ancient and modern to help people be in the best health, physical, emotional, and spiritual they can be. And because I believe he will achieve these dreams for the benefit of us all, I wanted to be the first to write about him.
The picture above is of Michael and I at an art showing of another Italian artist where we went immediately after my session with him, with the artist's work behind us. I will write about that next. And this picture... Michelagelo's "David."
Grazie Michelangelo, both of you!
Filippo
P. S. Getting back to the workshop where I first saw Michael's work, there are so many types of tarantellas, steps, melodies, approaches etc. Here is just one example of the pizzica in Taranto, ITALY. The part that actually interests me most about this video is the second half of it where after the formal musicians leave the music continues usually until morning, during some festivals, played and danced and watched by all who are present and in the "moment."
As a matter there is a scrolling written commentary throughout the video. During the first part, one of the key comments is translated from the Italian into "The dance uses the simbolical language of the body wherein every movement allows the dancers to communicate."
During the second part it reads as follows: "This is the most natural part of the dance where turns, expressions, and states of the soul dominate accompanied simply by such instruments as a tambourine, a guitar and a harmonica, without technological contamination."
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