Egyptian Tanoura Dance

Whirls, twirls and rapture

Last week, ICCR organized a three day Sufi festival, out of which two were singing days with Begum Farida Khanum and Adil Barki respectively, and one was a dancing day with Tanoura dancers from Egypt. Kamani auditorium has never been so alive as on Friday when the Tanoura dervishes whirled everyone into a trance.

The performance began with singers singing and performing on their instruments. The most remarkable instruments are Ney, a flute variant, and the Algerian drum. Ney has a special significance, air has to be breathed in and out rather than blown into it. The wind passing through the flute is not just the breath of the player, but the breath of God. Once the breath enters the journeyer, symbolized by the dancer, the journeyer seeks union with God through the whirling movements. Modernisation affects everyone, and the group used a keyboard as well along with the traditional instruments. Once the mood was set, the dancers came in with their large, round, variegated skirts, and what followed was sheer visual delight. There is symbolism to all the movements of the dancers, which we can’t delve into, here. There was a central dancer around who the rest of the band whirled. It was like planets revolving around the sun. The whirling is continuous, long and varied. The skirt whirls at different angles, it’s even whirled over the head. When the dancer tilts at an angle where the right hand is raised up and the left almost touches the ground, it signifies a union of the heaven and earth.

After the dancers, the drummer came forward with his Algerian drum which looks like an oversized damru, but it’s variety is tremendous – it can produce a range of sounds. The drummer made the audience clap with his beats. It was as if the entire audience was on stage, clapping, dancing, chanting. This was followed by a girl making a human horse dance on stage. The black horse fainted after a while, and was revived by the girl’s kiss. The horse got down from the stage, went into the audience and kissed everyone. Besides, there were stick dances and other performances. The verve that the show generated is something one hasn’t observed even in a live rock performance. Don’t miss out a Tanoura performance if you ever get a chance.