Some immigrants recreate their cultures and traditions in the United States once they immigrate here, but not everyone has done so on as grand a scale as Hoboken High School teacher Tony Altilio did last week in the school auditorium.
Rather than talking about, or demonstrating, the songs and dances he learned as a boy growing up in Caggiano, a small town in Italy, Altilio arranged to have a 30-member singing and dancing troupe from his hometown perform for local elementary school kids Wednesday.
Altilio, who has taught Italian at the high school for 22 years, invited the group to perform in Hoboken last week after learning that they would be performing in Manhattan’s Columbus Day parade this weekend.
“These are dances that have been performed for 120 years,” said Altilio, before ceding the stage to a troop of brightly-dressed dancers from his hometown. For the next hour the troop performed traditional songs that lightly poked fun at the complexities men and women face in their relationships and their courting rituals. One song that had the audience clapping along with the beat told the story of a boy who plays a game with a metal hoop and a rod. When confronted by a girl, who wants his attention, the boy faces a moment of crisis in which it appears that he will have to choose between two things he wants. But he solves the dilemma by using the metal hoop as a prop to dance with the girl.
After the short program, many of the students who had watched the show seemed to be dazzled by the group’s outfits as much as anything else.
“They looked cool,” sixth grader Paula Maran said of the black knickers, red vests, and black bowlers the men wore and the silk aprons over black skirts and puffed-out white blouses the women donned. Maran also noted that her facility with Spanish made the songs easy to understand.
Others said that they did not understand a word of the program, but that the songs and dances inspired them to take Italian when they get to the high school.
“I like the way they speak,” said eighth grader Crysta Latimer. “I just like that accent. I’d like to go there someday.”
Still others were impressed with the physical stamina necessary to perform the dances that often required repeated twirling, stomping and jumping.
“That takes a lot of breath,” said Ezequiel Andujar, a sixth grader, after watching the show. “I thought it was exciting.”
The performance was followed by a ceremony at City Hall where Mayor Anthony Russo handed the key to the city to the mayor of Caggiano, who was visiting the United States for the parade. In exchange, Russo received a key to the medieval Italian city, too.
All in all, Altilio seemed to be pleased that the event appeared to be such a success.
“I think this will generate more interest in our Italian programs and our Italian club,” he said. “I’m happy with it.”