This dance is melancholic and sentimental rather than dramatic. Its rhythm comes from the zambra, that is, from tangos. The great Catalan bailaora Carmen Amaya choreographed the taranto in New York in the forties, although it was known as zambra por rondeñas, and some experts consider that it was Rosario who invented this dance. José Blas Vega, in El baile del taranto, gave it a universal status, and another oustanding work is Historia de los tarantos, a theatre piece by Alfredo Mañas which was transferred to the big screen, earning great worldwide success, and which also represented the artistic colophon of the unforgettable Carmen Amaya. As a choreographed style, it features elements of stylised flamenco dancing, that is, alternate rhythms in the marcaje (marking) of the lyrics and the escobillas (the section of the dance that includes the zapateado, a rhytmic combination of sounds made by stepping with the toe, sole and heel of the foot), signalled by the llamadas (calls or signal for the cantaor to sing, involving movements including emphatic, forceful stepping sounds) and desplantes (series of hard stepping movements that end, or climax, a series of steps, or section, of the dance).
The meter of the tarantas is ternary, while in the taranto the movements are based on a binary meter:

1234/1234/1234/1234

The cante is similar to the taranta, which can be told apart from it by its need to be subjected to a meter. Contrary to what one may think, it was born later than the mentioned taranta in the region of Almería, and subsequently spread out to other areas. Among its parents, two persons who are always mentioned are Rojo el Alpargatero and Chilares, who may have adapted the old taranta to convert it into a style that could be danced to, although credit for inventing the dance bearing this name, roundabout the 1940s, has been given to the Catalan Carmen Amaya.