Dance of the Cordella
Description
Dance of the Cordella
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Technical sheet prepared by: Region of Sicily - Department of cultural heritage and Sicilian identity - CRicd: Regional center for inventory, cataloging and documentation and Sicilian regional film library
No. Prog.
158
Good
Dance of the Cordella
Book
REI - Book of Expressions
Approval date
04-10-2012
Category
Performance / Entertainment
Town \ Province
Palermo
Destination
Common
Petralia Sottana
Local denomination
Dance of jubilation
Chronological News
The Ballo della Cordella, in Petralia Sottana, which could be better called la Danza of jubilation, is a hymn of thanks to Nature and Providence for the good harvest of wheat. It is a propitiation rite for the fertility of the land of pagan origin (myth of Ceres) which was subsequently included in the celebrations in honor of the Madonna dell'Alto di Petralia Sottana in May.
Country dances and pantomimes were performed as a spontaneous need of the community to honor the divinities of the woods or to celebrate other divinities with propitiatory and thanksgiving rites in seasonal feasts. Today the event is held on the first Sunday after 15 August.
In the ancient rite, the dance was preceded by a wedding procession that moved from Piazza Duomo opened by a couple of newlyweds who, on a white horse, advanced followed by bridesmaids and relatives and was closed by 12 couples of dancers. The dance took place in a farmyard where a few sacks of wheat and numerous sheaves of ears had been arranged. The couples arranged themselves in a radial pattern around a 2 meter high pole decorated with multicolored ribbons. After ejaculation, the group leader, originally the bride's father, ordered the couples to dance.
recurrence
Annual
Data
May (Madonna dell'Alto); today the first Sunday after August 15th
opportunity
Propitiatory rites for the fertility of the earth on the occasion of the Madonna dell'Alto
Function
Propitiatory
Actors
U Capurali o Walking stick group leader, 12 pairs of dancers symbolizing the months of the year
Participants
Local community, tourists
Description
The twelve couples of dancers, symbolizing the months of the year, dance around a pole (symbol of the tree) surmounted by ears of wheat and decorated with ribbons of various colors, which are intertwined to symbolize the seasons or the constellations that revolve around to the sun, author of rural fertility and life. The dance is a wishing homage to the young spouses so that their union may be fruitful of offspring, well-being and joy. The Wedding Procession recalls the times when it was difficult to travel the country lanes on horseback and represents the departure of the bride from the paternal house to go to her new home.
The bride wears a very precious silver-gray dress with eighteenth-century embroidery and lace and is wrapped in an ivory-white cloak. Bring in your hand "distaff and rosary“', Symbols of industriousness and conjugal faith. The groom wears a velvet suit with a blue jacket, and the characteristic "cap embroidered with silk bow". On the farmyard where the harvest of the year has just finished, the Cordella dance: at a nod from the group leader U Capurali o Walking stick all the dancers begin to dance, recalling with their gestures four figures in honor of working in the fields and bread as sowing (you like them), germination (you work), the crop (he milked), the bread. Through the Cords (Kurdeddi) that start from the bundle of ripe ears on top of the pole, ending up in the hands of the dancers, usually symbolizing the tremble, the vigorous flow of life, indispensable and welcome source of strength and well-being, of hope and joy, offered by the Divini Voleri to Humanity, but what a nagging and sweaty effort it costs. Before the start of the Ball, in a tone of prayer, all the dancers and the oldest of the group, thePater Families, recite a prayer of thanks to Jesus and to the Madonna dell'Alto.
Catalog Sheet
REFERENCES
Puma them, saint. 2005. IThe dance of the cord: the magical glue of one's traditions, Geraci Siculo: Ariadne.
Federico, Melanie. 2007. The pantomime dance of the cordella in Petralia Sottana, Palermo: La Zisa.
Federico, Melanie. 2008. The wedding procession and the pantomime dance of the Cordella: history, culture and tradition in Petralia Sottana, Palermo: Region of Sicily, Department of Cultural, Environmental and Public Education, Department of Cultural, Environmental and Permanent Education.
Sitography
Filmography
Discography
Footnotes
The Ballo della cordella is linked to the Registry Assets relating to the Wheat and Bread Cycle.
Author Card
Chiara Dell'Utri
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Location