Tarantella Isterica (video, 2021) is a take on an Italian folk dance that was used historically as a treatment for spider bites, employing frenetic, spastic movements to accelerate the course of the poison. Beyond its use as an antivenom, there are layers of superstition in the history of the dance: it was originally a Dionysian mystery cult ritual that was suppressed by the Roman senate and resurfaced in this more acceptable form. Later on, it was used as a treatment for hysteria. Musicians would be brought into play the tarantella for people having episodes and they would respond to the 6/8 rhythm and transition from panicked movement to frantic dance. Making the piece with my mother was a really personal and sincere way of engaging this history and touching on some of the arcane power that’s secretly embedded in a sanitized popular tradition.