Tonight, after a long day of class and work, I went to a demonstration of the dancing of the whirling dervishes. I knew that whirling dervishes were a Sufi (Islamic mystic) dance ritual and that, similar to meditation, it was a way for the soul to become united with God. I also knew that the dance had to do with spinning (hence the name whirling). So I figured that going to this show would be a spiritual, meditative, and relaxing experience... I was wrong.
The dance itself is a way to attain this out of body state, and it's just what you would imagine when you hear the phrase "whirling dervish" - a guy spinning around unstoppably until he becomes so dizzy that he feels separated from his body. I knew all this going in, but I somehow still was not prepared for what I was about to witness. During the first part of the performance, one dancer literally spun around for 40 minutes without stopping. He was wearing many multicolored skirts which flared up and around as he spun, and there were other dancers moving in a circle in the opposite direction from which he was spinning. I was dizzy from just looking at him. Literally I had to put my head down and close my eyes for a few seconds, which was difficult because the whole scene was so entrancing that I couldn't look away. The spinning dancers did a number of tricks, including removing these large oversized skirts they wore as they spun and flying them above their heads. The experience was very interesting, and the dance obviously takes a lot of practice and skill, but the show was not what I'd call 'pleasant.' First of all, I was a tad sick to my stomach from watching all the spinning (I know that sounds kind of lame and weak, but this was unlike any dizzying demonstration I'd ever seen), plus the sound of the horns that accompanied the whirlers was not to my musical taste - it sounded kind of like really screechy bagpipes.
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