Planning a wedding on the Amalfi Coast? Add a tarantella show your guests will remember
Your guests are flying in from London, New York, Sydney or Munich. They have seen the photos of Positano and Ravello, and now they are here for your wedding. What they talk about on the flight home is rarely the menu. It is the moment the whole terrace started clapping, a tambourine landed in their hands and they found themselves dancing with people they had met an hour earlier.
That is what a tarantella show brings. At Sorrento Folk we dance the tarantella sorrentina, the traditional folk dance of Sorrento: a couples' dance of courtship, joy and fast rhythm, performed in hand-sewn costumes. We are a cultural association founded in Sorrento in 2011 by Francesco Di Fiore, and today we are about ten couples of dancers. Here is how tarantella dancers can fit into a wedding on the Amalfi Coast, and what to think about when you plan it.
Why the tarantella works so well at a destination wedding
At an international wedding, not everyone shares a language. Music and dance do the translating. You can enjoy the tarantella without ever having heard of it: the rhythm is immediate, the costumes are full of colour and the dancers bring the guests into the circle, handing out tamburelli (frame drums with jingles) and nacchere (castanets) so everyone can play along.
It also gives your day a real sense of place. Your guests will remember celebrating you somewhere with its own traditions, not just in front of a beautiful view. And the photos speak for themselves: red berets, velvet waistcoats, white lace aprons and swirling skirts against the sea.
When to place the show during your wedding day
There is no single right moment. Couples usually choose one or more of these:
- Welcoming the guests: a lively start while people arrive and pick up their first drink.
- The newlyweds' entrance: the dancers lead the way and welcome you into the reception.
- During dinner: a short performance between courses that wakes up the room.
- Cutting the cake: music and dance around one of the most photographed moments of the night.
- A surprise: nobody knows, the music starts and the dancers appear among the tables.
If many of your guests come from abroad, the surprise works especially well: they have no idea what is coming, and the reaction is genuine. Tell us which moments you have in mind and we will help you build the right sequence with your wedding planner and venue.
What your guests will see and hear
A show is built from several tarantellas in our repertoire, such as the Tarantella Tasso, the Tarantella Masaniello and the Tarantella dell'Amore, the last one made for a wedding. The couples move through the classic steps of the dance: the parade entrance, the circle, the quick hops, the turns of the rondeau, the moments of courtship between partners.
Two characters from the Neapolitan tradition can join the group: the Pazzariello, with his big feathered hat, and Pulcinella, in his white costume and black half-mask. Many international guests only know them from books, and seeing them live always raises a smile.
The costumes are sewn by hand by Sorrento seamstresses. You can read about every detail on our costumes page, and discover the instruments, from the tamburello to the triccheballacche, on the instruments page.
Where we perform
We are based in Sorrento and perform across the Sorrento Peninsula and the Amalfi Coast: Sorrento, Sant'Agnello, Piano di Sorrento, Meta, Vico Equense, Massa Lubrense, Positano, Amalfi and Ravello, as well as Capri, Naples and the rest of Campania. On request, we also travel elsewhere in Italy and abroad.
How to plan it: a short checklist
When you get in touch, it helps to have:
- the date and the venue (hotel, villa, restaurant, terrace);
- a rough number of guests;
- the moments you would like the show to cover;
- whether there is enough space for the dancers to move and form a circle;
- your wedding planner's contact details, if you have one.
Several things affect the price: the number of couples, the length of the performance, the location and travel, recorded or live music, the season and day of the week, and how many moments you book. That is why the cost is always set in a quote tailored to your wedding.
You will find everything about weddings on our tarantella for weddings page, or you can go straight to the quote request. Daniela Esposito, who looks after bookings, also answers on WhatsApp at +39 339 594 5561.
Your guests have travelled a long way to be with you. Give them a piece of Sorrento to take home.
