The scene in A Doll's House where Nora dances the Italian tarantella is one of the most famous in the play. Her husband observes, "But Nora darling, you dance as if your life were at stake" (Ibsen, A Doll's House, p. 92). He tells her to slow down, but she cannot-she is caught up in the sensual, ecstatic dance. Full of movement, the tarentella involves raising one's arms, running, hopping, whirling, and swinging from side to side.
Though we only see Nora dance alone, the tarantella is a social dance meant for two couples, or even for a long row of men and women. Traditionally the male partner uses two pairs of castanets, while the woman holds a tambourine in her right hand and beats on it with the lower part of her left palm. These instruments are used to keep time and to add to the excitement as the pace of the dance quickens, especially at its conclusion.
The dance itself has a curious history. In sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy, the bite of the Apulian spider, also known as the Lycosa tarentula or common tarantula, was popularly but mistakenly thought to cause a nervous disease. This sickness, called tarantism, was allegedly marked by hysteria and a mania for dancing. The wild motions of the tarantella dance, which was named after the disease, were thought to be caused by the spider bite.
Source: http://www.answers.com/topic/a-doll-s-house-events-in-history-at-the-time-of-the-play
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