The Liscio
The plain is a partner dance born in Romagna between the end of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century that over the years has spread throughout Italy with prevalence for Italy North. It includes three dances: Mazurka, Waltz, Polka. It owes its name to the movements of the dancers using sliding, shuffling his feet, then go off smoothly. The main elements that have helped to shape the new dance were: fast execution of mazurkas and polkas (due to Carlo Brighi); the use of instruments such as the clarinet (the late nineteenth century) and the battery (in the twenties of the twentieth century).
The smooth Romagna Folk Romagna, is characterized by brilliant execution (given the strong presence of rhythmic bass and drums) and fast songs written mainly for violin, clarinet in C, saxophone and later for voice. Probably the smooth "best known" and cheerful The smooth Emilia, compared to smooth Romagna, not based on the wind but on the accordion (originally, the hurdy Bologna). The waltz was originally Bolognese fast. The smooth Emilian includes "Dances filuzziane", also known as smooth Bologna, a dance that has acquired the status of sports dance, like the folk Romagna. The smooth filuzziano involves performing figures detached from the man, who must have special athletic qualities. The smooth Piedmont is slower than that of Romagna and performed mainly by accordion, clarinet in C, saxophone and voice. Some formations smooth Piedmont replace electric bass tuba and do not use the guitar; this choice is probably direct legacy of the previous formations bandistiche.
The place where people danced the smooth was the dance hall, a large hall used as a dance floor with bar service. The first dance hall was opened in 1910 by Carlo Brighi Bellaria: the "Shed Brighi" (later "Salone Brighi"). In Piedmont we find a curious variant of the dance hall: the small stage to dance (bal Italianisation from Piedmont to palchett) or a closed circular track with a central post to which was fastened a rope. This rope was stretched at the end of 3 balls and an officer performed a total ride of the track so as to bring out every dancer from it. To regain access to the track you had to pay. In this way they were paid only 3 balls and not the entire evening. This tradition still persists in parts of the Piedmont in some festivals where you pay for "access to the dance floor."
