Kate Causbie (Seattle/Puglia) and Francesco Faustino (Puglia) return to San Francisco! Join us to celebrate the solstice with Italian dance!
Saturday, June 22
Sunday June 23
Lines Dance Center
26 Seventh Street
(between Market and Mission)
San Francisco, California
12:30 to 3:30pm each day
In the Saturday class we will explore the traditions, basic movements, and songs of the social pizzica pizzica folk dance from Salento.
We will also look at:
—The role of pizzica as a social community dance, historically and currently
—Basic steps and movements, and how to use them in the "conversation" of the dance
Please register by May 15
Note: Classes will be held in English, and any translations of lyrics or terms will be provided as needed by our multilingual faculty.
Sunday's class will build upon the work we did on Saturday, with a focus on dancing in la ronda – the supportive community circle where we express ourselves through our culturally rooted movement.
On Sunday, we'll also explore:
—The difference between pizzica pizzica and various tarantelle
—Categories of pizzica and awareness of local distinctions
We'll get lots of practice dancing socially with a variety of partners, and we'll spend the day going deeper in to our exploration of distinctions between regional variations.
Note that while the Saturday class can be taken alone, the Sunday class can only be taken along with the Saturday class as it will build on the work we do there.
It is strongly encouraged to attend both days if you are able.
Please register by May 15th
We will be in a gorgeous dance studio at Alonzo King's Lines Dance Center, located at 26 Seventh Street in San Francisco. We are in Studio 4 on the 5th floor.
The studio is half a block away from the Civic Center BART/MUNI station. There are several affordable parking garages near by, as well as both metered and unmetered street parking. Free bike parking is available on the 3rd floor.
If you are taking public transportation or parking nearby and are uncomfortable walking to the studio alone, we can pair up to walk to and from the BART station together. Please reach out if you would like someone to walk with!
Note that masks are not currently required at Lines, but welcome. We will have open windows and air purifiers in the studio.
The above photos are from our January class at Lines.
Kate Causbie is from Seattle, Washington and since 2018 has been chasing musica popolare traditions from Puglia, the homeland of her paternal grandmother's family. Kate is passionate about fostering bridges to these traditions for communities of folks abroad with connections to Southern Italy, and is a strong believer in the power of music and dance to encapsulate memories, experiences, and identities lost to cultural assimilation.
Francesco Faustino discovered pizzica pizzica, and dance in general, in 2017. He studied under Veronica Calati in Conversano for the next four years, finding in dance a way — perhaps his main one — to express himself and create human connections.He started collaborating as a professional dancer with various Apulian groups in 2021, both in Italy and abroad. At the same time he expanded his interest to other traditional dances of Southern Italy, such as tammuriate and tarantelle calabresi.
Cost (sliding scale):
Saturday only: $45 to $135
(3 hours of instruction)
Saturday and Sunday: $90 to $270
(6 hours of instruction)
The classes are priced on a sliding scale, and we appreciate you registering at a price you feel you can comfortably afford. If figuring that out feels stressful for you, please scroll to the bottom of this page for a way to determine where you might fall. It is based on trust, and you do not need to share any info or reasoning with us. All payment information is kept private.
If you are unable to attend at the lowest price, please reach out and we will do our best to accommodate you. If you would like to pay more or sponsor a dancer at a lower rate, please feel free. Your paying the rate you can afford allows us to offer the classes to everyone at their current financial ability.
Similarly, if you know you are able to attend, we ask that register early. Our instructors will be traveling in to town to teach, and there are many expenses associated with preparing this offering.
Note that if there is space left at the door, the drop-in cost for each class will be the highest rate of the scale. Please pre-register if you know you need a lower rate.
There are no refunds, but you are welcome to transfer your registration.
What should I wear?
Wear anything you are comfortable in! Some people enjoy skirts for this dance style, but they are not necessary. Bare feet, dance shoes, or socks (if not too slippery) are all fine on your feet. No hard soled shoes in the dance studio, please (it is a sprung floor with a marley surface).
Can I bring a tamburello (frame drum)
or castagnette (castanets)?
Yes! There may be times we ask you not to play (if a recording has a certain thing we need to listen for, for example), but there should be some time for experienced drummers to play, too.
What else will be going on?
Chances are good we'll have snacks. (I mean have you met Italians and diasporic Italian-Americans?! We want to feed you.) Bring a water bottle, and there are filtered water fountains at Lines to fill them up as needed. There will also be some merchandise for sale.
Note that we will likely be scheduling some social time Saturday night. Stay tuned!
Wait, what is pizzica?!
Pizzica is a dance that is part of the larger Italian folk dance category of tarantella. This is a nice article about it. You can also check out Monica's You Tube playlist for lots of examples. But the best way to learn, short of going to Salento yourself? Come take our workshop!
Accessibility
By 'all welcome' we mean all are welcome! Pizzica is a physical dance, and we will have chairs for people who would like to sit during class, either as they move along with the instruction or to take breaks. Singing, clapping along, and general enjoyment is welcome at any point if you don't want to dance the whole time. There will be more experienced movers there, and folks who might have just heard the word 'pizzica' recently, and we'll all dance together.
It's a folk dance, and all folks are welcome.
Traveling?
Are you traveling in to San Francisco for the workshops and looking for a place to stay? Please let us know and we can connect you to other travelers and recommend hotels.
Email us with any and all clarifications, and questions! We can't wait to dance with you in June!
"We wanted to revive Salento’s pizzica, and in a very precise, studied way. Salento’s music is not only pizzica, but we needed pizzica, because pizzica moves, shakes, and we were not only interested in the musical aspects, but also in the social ones. The pizzica involves everyone. I wanted this music to become the flamenco of Italy, or the tango of Italy. We had the precise will to make this movement mass: we wanted thousands of people to know the pizzica."
Edoardo Winspeare, in Il ritmo meridiano. La pizzica e le identità danzanti del Salento, 2002
Each bottle above contains sentences that describe a person's current financial experience and class. The bottle on the far left represents the upper end of the sliding scale spectrum. Folks who identify most with the statements in the far left bottle qualify to pay for class tickets at the upper end of our sliding scale. The middle bottle represents folks who sometimes can pay for the upper end of the sliding scale, sometimes the middle, and sometimes the bottom half. The bottle on the far right represents the lowest end of the scale and folks who qualify to purchase class tickets from the bottom of our price spectrum.
For ease of reading, here is the text from each of the bottles in the above graphic:
Top of the Scale (or the left bottle):
Middle of the Scale (or the middle bottle):
Bottom of the Scale (or the right bottle):
* Basic Needs include food, housing, health care, and transportation.
** Expendable Income might mean you are able to buy coffee or tea at a shop, go to the movies or a concert, buy new clothes, books, and similar items each month, etc.
This graphic and content is from Alexis Cunningfolk, and is used with permission.
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