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Description of the Dance“After about an hour of different songs,
the dervishes began to lean forward rhythmically and chant the name of
Allah – speeding up like an express train.
A violin and zither sent chills down my spine, and out of nowhere
emerged a solo voice full of heartbreaking longing, similar to the
muezzin’s call from the minarets…. Then 12 dervishes filed into the back of
the room, took off their black cloaks and started spinning with
incredible lightness and grace, their angelic whirling a perfect
counterpoint to the earthy chanting.
Nothing had prepared me for the disorienting feeling that the
dervishes were defying gravity.
The performance was heavy with symbolism – the funereal black
cloak is a tomb and in casting this off the dervishes discard all
worldly ties. They spin
with their right arms extended to heaven and their left arms to the
floor. Grace is received
from Allah and distributed to humanity.
The dancers themselves represent the heavenly bodies circling the
sun, who is their sheikh, the spiritual leader.”
This page last updated 11 January 2002
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