TANOURA: The Egyptian Dervish Dance

TANOURA: The Egyptian Dervish Dance Tanoura is associated with Sufism and is performed at Sufi festivals, but it is also performed by non-Sufis as a folk dance or concert dance. Although it is mainly used for visual effects, the dancers also augment their balance with the tanoura, through a dynamic centrifugal effect. Tanoura is the Egyptian kind of the Sufi dervish dance. The origin of the word is most likely associated with the name of the skirt used by the Egyptian dervishes in the performance. Sufi dances, where the performer rotates without stopping in different poses, is a type of meditative practice during which the dervish enters a trance. And even if it does not look very believable, I am inclined to believe that it is so. After all, even I, as a spectator and listener, felt the euphoria of what I saw! Virtuoso playing on national instruments with an accelerating pace, the constant whirling of the performer dressed in bright coloured skirts, which also whirls, thereby creating a kaleido