(TAR-uhn-tiz-uhm)- An uncontrollable urge to dance - After Taranto, a town in southern
Italy where this phenomenon was experienced during the 15-17th centuries. It's not clear whether tarantism was the symptom of a
spider's bite or its cure, or it may have been just a pretext to dodge a
prohibition against dancing. The names of the dance tarantella and the
spider tarantula are both derived from the same place.
"The director is in a
wild delirium,
spinning in circles as though stricken with tarantism, his whirring
camera held at arm's length, panning, tilting, arcing and oscillating and making other moves that have no name."