the story

Originally, the Tarantella (Pronounced As: târntel) was an Italian folk dance of lower to middle classes. The Tarantella has gone by many odd spellings such as Tarentule, Tarantel, Tarantella, and Tarentella. The name essentially means in English "Tarantula Spider" (pronounced tranchl.)

There are multiple sources for the origination of this dance, but my favorite is the following:

The dance was used apparently to cure the bite of the spider. The bite of the spider was presumed to make one hallucinate. The townsfolk would play music while the afflicted person would dance nonstop, to ward off the spider's venom. Women working in the fields, who would be bitten by the Tarantula (Arania or Apulian Spider; Lycosa Tarantula or Wolf Spider [Tarantula being most popular.]) spider would dance off the venom. It is said that profuse perspiration, which seemed to force the poison out through the pores of the body, was the only remedy for the bite of this venomous spider, and exercise such as dance was their chief means of inducing perspiration. (At the time it was believed that this spider's bite was deadly and during those times there was no antidote available.)