About ME
When I was a teenager, I read a novel about Tarantism, a phenomenon from Puglia, southern Italy, where people used music and dance – the Pizzica – as a way to heal individuals and communities. I was enchanted by this book and this concept.
At eighteen, I moved to Italy to study Italian, and when I visited Puglia the first time, I got to experience this music for myself. People weren't just preserving old traditions, they were determined to bring them back to life. They were filling summer stages with folk music, gathering in piazzas to dance, creating festivals where entire communities could sing and move together. The revival wasn't so much about looking backward as it was about using these old traditions to build something new and vital.
I came to understand that these weren't ancient traditions passed down in an unbroken line
They were practices being reconstructed by people who saw the power of using ancestral music to bring people together. They showed me how old music could create new connections, how traditional songs could give modern communities a reason to gather, dance, and celebrate.
When I met my partner, who comes from this place and grew up surrounded by its colours and rhythms, I began to delve into this music, learning it from the inside out. Shortly after the birth of my first daughter, I wrote and illustrated a bilingual children's book about Tarantism, called ‘Pizzica Pizzica’. After the birth of my second child a few years later, I wrote ‘We Are Women’ about the women workers in Northern Italy, who have a huge repertoire of work songs associated with the rice fields.
I have also published poetry and short stories, on the subjects of art, motherhood, community and healing, and have worked as a magazine editor and writer.
I’ve lived with my family in Italy, Spain and Australia, and have been a performer for the past 18 years, with both AzzBand (Spain) and Santa Taranta (Australia). Our family returns to Europe often, learning more about how recovered traditions can help people connect with each other today.
Home is now in Northern NSW, where I create spaces where people can experience the joy of singing together. My own journey through motherhood showed me how powerful singing can be for women during the transformative perinatal period.
Alongside singing circles for the general community, I lead groups specifically for mothers, using voice and harmony to create spaces of support and connection during this profound life transition.
I have deep trust in natural processes, and this guides everything I do. I spend a lot of time sitting my rivers with my kids, or among the the flowers and bees in my garden. When I'm teaching a new song, watching a group discover how their voices fit together, or holding space for new mothers to find strength and solace in song, I’m always considering the human in its natural state, connecting with others and making art.
What the folk revival has taught me, and what I see reflected in my work with mothers and communities, is that even when traditions are broken, we can gather the pieces and make something new and healing.
Sometimes I think about myself as a teenager reading about tarantism with this kind of desperate curiosity, as though I knew that I would one day become part of keeping these traditions alive. This has become my life's work – creating spaces where people can remember something our bodies already know: that singing together helps us feel more whole.