Dancing the night away at Italian fest

This is the first year Italian dancing lessons were offered.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- Emil Tola smiles proudly when he says he is a full-blooded Italian.
And his smile turns to hearty laughter as he talks about his love of dancing. He enjoys ballroom and polka dancing the most.
But despite his heritage, Tola has never learned Italian dancing -- until now.
The 63-year-old Saxonburg, Pa., man was among a group of people who learned Italian dances Saturday evening as part of the 19th annual Italian American Heritage Festival downtown.
"I love dancing," said Tola as he took a breather and watched others in the group doing the Chicken Dance.
"I've been dancing since I was 8 years old."
He and his friend, 70-year-old Dolores Renn of Monroeville, Pa., said they travel all over Ohio and Pennsylvania to dance.
"He pays. I dance," Renn said, poking Tola in the shoulder.
Margie Sollitto, coordinator of the festival's culture center, said it's the first year Italian dance lessons have been offered at the festival. The activity was in the Comfort Inn's Bistro Room.
"I try to offer something new every year," she said. "There are a lot of people who are interested in learning how to do this, but they don't know where to go."
The teachers
Alisha Pettenato of Warren and Jessica Gadd of Champion spent about an hour playing Italian music and leading a group of about 10 people in traditional Italian dances such as the Storta del Crusch and the Tarantella Siciliana.
Pettenato kept them in time by calling out, "Right-two-three, left-two-three, right-two-three, left-two-three."
Then they spun their partners, faced the opposite direction and did it again.
They start leading the group in the Quadriglia, but everyone gets tangled up and collapses in laughter. They stop the music and start again.
Pettenato and Gadd are students at Youngstown State University, but learned Italian dance while attending Howland High School, in the school's Italian dance club. They're trying to pass it along to others who want to learn.
"I go to weddings and they do these dances, but I don't know how to do them," Tola said. "Now I'll know."
Sollitto and Pettenato said weddings and other family functions are primarily where people practice Italian dancing.
The festival was to continue today.
bjackson@vindy.com