HYDERABAD: “Glittering lawns. Chill after the winter solstice. Kaleidoscopic colours swirling in giant circles. No, this is not the description of a psychedelic trance. But trance it is. Of music. Of dance. Of spirituality. It’s Tanoura, an old folk dance tradition of Egypt. Refaat Badran Ibrahim Khedr and Shaaban Abdllatif Elsayed Attia, the two Egyptian dancers, mesmerized the audience at Taj Deccan recently as they whirled.
The hypnotic notes of drums rose to a create a crescendo. The golden moon up in the sky added to the mood. The artistes were flown all the way from the Country of Pyramids for Jashan-E-Khusrau, as the 6th edition of the Sufi Music Festival took off.
The most popular Sufi whirling is of Dervishes in Turkey who belong to the Mevlavi Order of Mewlana Jalaluddin Rumi, the great Sufi mystic, scholar and poet of 13th century who died in Konya, Turkey. It’s believed that this swirling in Egypt is adapted from the Whirling Dervishes of Turkey. The Arabic term Tanoura pertains to both the dancer and the rotating skirt which can weigh upto 40 kg. Says the founder of the festival Muzaffar Ali Soofi, Sajjada Nasheen and Mutawalli Dargah Hazrat Shaik Ji Hali Abul-u-Lai, “The colourful complex designs on the attire create a sort of hallucination as if the dresses of the dancers were twirling with some hidden batteries. But in reality it’s years of practice which gives them such speed.” Sadly, the dancers talk only in their native Arabic and somehow Shaaban manages to inform us, “To achieve perfection, your legs have to be really strong and you should know how to balance yourself.”
But what other connotations does Tanoura have? “It means submission to Almighty,” says Refaat. The colourful whirling begins as they both spin and spin.
The circles appear to be liquid. And slowly the garment is divided into two skirts forming a double whirl, the second one reaching almost to the neck of the artiste. The trance deepens and multi-coloured umbrellas bloom on the dress and the fingers of the dancers, slowly popping out of their hands and landing up on the stage, only to add more colour to the whole experience.
The orange, green, yellow, blue and red applique patterns on their skirts represent the Sufi orders. The endless whirling denotes merging with the divine. The melodious tunes of ‘Allah Ho’ floated in the air as their skirts bloomed like giant lotuses. The three rounds of the dance was punctuated with sitar vaadan by Ustad Irfan Khan. The melodious tunes set the mood for a surreal experience. The crowd cheered and cheered till the next round of the dance began. The performance was followed by the ghazal rendition by singer Anita Singhvi. The two dancers began their magic again holding several flat drums in their hands and balancing them at the same time as they twirled and swirled till they merged with the moonlit night.
— Saima Afreen
saima@newindianexpress
@Sfreen