Dancing
with life

Apart from lecturing, Roberto Lucanero carries out important work popularising the music and culture of the Marche as a teacher giving courses in playing the diatonic accordion of the Marche, and teaching traditional dances of the Marche. In his diatonic accordion lessons, Lucanero aims to teach his pupils the characteristic techniques for playing the repertoire of music for the traditional dances which he learned directly in the field. In his dance classes, he is assisted by his wife Roberta Pigliapoco and by traditional dancers like Costantino Ravarelli. The energy that is thus created by the leading spirits of the enterprise involves everybody, including the pupils, physically and intellectually. The musicologist, the revival dancer, the traditional dancer become the instruments through which the pupils can access the traditional culture of the Marche, and become part of what Lucanero calls the ‘Saltarello folk”. Lucanero is probably the first Marchigiano to export from the Marche traditional techniques for playing the diatonic accordion and the traditional regional dances (saltarello and castellana).