Through the Path of Music

By Jyoti Nisha, "The dance of universal peace in Lucknow" - The Times of India - India
Friday, June 27, 2008

It isn’t everyday that city-folk get to experience the dance of universal peace – otherwise referred to as Sufi dancing.

Held at Ravindralaya and organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) this was definitely one of the most memorable cultural experiences in recent times.

The evening was a sojourn to meet God through the path of music and it was a sight to behold as a 12-member Sufi troupe from Syria kept the audience captive for over two hours.

The Sufis, sometimes joyful and expressive, other times meditative and inward, made sure that no one present was left untouched.

Clad in a bewitching white dress, the child in the troupe, Mohammad Haddad – also its youngest member along with Rajaa Mohamed Balankou, swirled like the wind itself in the dance named Malawi.

The other members included Mohammad Kadri Dalal, a lute player; Ghassan Mohamad Amouri on Zither (a rare string instrument of West Asia); Youseef Ibrahim Mohamad Al-Youseef on flute; three violin players – Abdulhalim Moustafa Fariri, Abdulbaset Mohamed Albakar and Mahmoud Abdulkader Chaghale.

Ahmad Arfan Mahmoud Hayek played a variety of drums and Mahmoud Shaghaleh on tambourine.

Celebrated religious singers – Hussam Libnani and Ame Kahiri famous for singing Alfatleh filled the ambience with a spiritual aura. The music was kind of a body prayer – the crooners sung it and the audience danced to it.

Well, if not literally then certainly emotionally.