By Meher Fatma - Delhi Newsline - Delhi, IndiaSaturday, June 30, 2007
If you thought dervishes were mendicants who pirouetted on the plains of Turkey, their alabaster-white skirts in a whirl, then the spectacularly attired tannoura dancers from Cairo would have been a surprise.
On Friday evening, 15 Egyptian dervishes gave a colourful, folk lilt to the traditional dance form, as they spun feverishly to the rising beat of the doumbek (a goblet-shaped drum), the mizmar (shehnai-like wind instrument) and tambourines, their spectacular costumes switching shades and turning them into a human kaleidoscope.
If the many-tiered skirts were multihued, then the music was more folkloric than sombre. “The dervish dance form strictly follows a religious philosophy with its whirling movement, but as tannoura dancers we have adapted the dance and given it a more colourful look,” said Mohammady Fatihe, director of the Al-Beheira Folk Troupe that was in the Capital as part of the ICCR’s festival, Traditions of Sufism.
If you thought dervishes were mendicants who pirouetted on the plains of Turkey, their alabaster-white skirts in a whirl, then the spectacularly attired tannoura dancers from Cairo would have been a surprise.
On Friday evening, 15 Egyptian dervishes gave a colourful, folk lilt to the traditional dance form, as they spun feverishly to the rising beat of the doumbek (a goblet-shaped drum), the mizmar (shehnai-like wind instrument) and tambourines, their spectacular costumes switching shades and turning them into a human kaleidoscope.
If the many-tiered skirts were multihued, then the music was more folkloric than sombre. “The dervish dance form strictly follows a religious philosophy with its whirling movement, but as tannoura dancers we have adapted the dance and given it a more colourful look,” said Mohammady Fatihe, director of the Al-Beheira Folk Troupe that was in the Capital as part of the ICCR’s festival, Traditions of Sufism.
The troupe, founded over 40 years ago in Cairo, has over 60 dancers who specialise in the revival of arts and culture. “We have performed in Spain, Italy, China and Korea, but this is our first time in India,” said Fatihe, who will take his troupe to Srinagar before heading home.
[picture: Egyptian Doumbek with ceramic inlay http://tinyurl.com/3a7bpz]
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