New Delhi: Amer El Tony put his hand to his chest and said, “It’s a search that lead me here. Singing is praying, and being a Mawlawai is a medium in soul and spirit to achieve that connection with my God.”
Amer is credited with the preservation and continuance of the tradition of the Egyptian Mawlawiyah (more popularly known as Whirling Dervish), when in 1994 he took upon himself the task of rejuvenating the dance form started during the pharaohnic times.
Since then, Amer has regaled the world to this exciting form of dance that rests on the tenets of sufism. Mawlawiyah starts with an ode to God on subtle musical notes produced through three percussion instruments and a flute.
It accelerates to a crescendo of whirling exhilaration and singing that combined together produces that perfect picture of rhythm in motion. To witness such euphoria, where any onlooking crowd cheers and applauds, is truly surrendering oneself to the pleasures of music.
But the journey wasn’t easy for Amer. Coming from a family of city dwellers (his father was a teacher, mother a homemaker), Amer took to Mawlawiyah during his twenties, just as a start to his personal search of a higher order.
“I was looking for something that made me truly happy, a form of meditation that could end my search,” he recalls.
“It was around this time that I discovered Mawlawiyah, which was still in tradition in Egypt, but on a very small scale being conducted by unknown singers and dancers in the villages of Egypt,” he elucidates.
Amer says, as his interest in Mawlawiyah grew, so did his hunger to learn more of its origin. He read through ancient texts and understood the ethos and logic behind the art form. It was several years of painstaking learning that he formed his troupe in 1994.
Amer very soon realised that for this art form to survive, he had to take it to the world outside. Thus, began his tryst with improvising with the Whirling Dervish.
He incorporated the 'tanoura', or the colour element in these dances that reflect in the dresses and skirts that the dancers wear. Traditionally, in the Turkish Dervish, the clothes are subdued, with off-white the preferred tone.
Amer also incorporated changes in music, adding a distinct note to his form. The instruments like the tabla and dohalla are used in repeated forms. So is the flute, which combines the longing the individual wishes to quell through the singing and whirling.
The dances can go one for hours, culminating in a heady mix of drum beats and aggressive singing.
Like our home-grown baul which also emanates from the doctrine of Sufism, the music and dance culminates into a space of its own.
Amer expresses the fondness for the art form. He says, “Mawlawiyah is played out in such a way, that the singer is the centre of attraction, and he acts as the thread between the whirling dancers and himself. With each song he delivers the spirit and speed of music and notes to the dancers in such a way that he is the sun in the a solar system. Once this symbiotic relationship is formed, it creates a divine composition.”
Amer and his troupe has performed the world over. But they have recently started performing in India, with a show in Kolkata earlier this year. “We were thrilled! A performance of an hour rolled out beyond that, and the audience wanted more! Such is the spirit of Mawlawiyah!” Amer says.
In New Delhi, for the Delhi International Arts Festival 2011, the troupe is set to return to the capital in February 2012 with the intention of conducting workshops.
“People want to know more on Mawlawiyah, its origin and what it encapsulates. So we decided to take this ahead,” he says.
Amer is currently employed with the Academy of Art, Cairo and has a PhD in Mawlawiyah, probably the only person with an expertise in the discipline.
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