Istanbul Music and Sema Group has performed more than 200 concerts on 4 continents, presenting mystical Turkish music and
the famed whirling ceremony to audience and critical acclaim in many prestigious halls including Sydney Opera House, Brussels BOZAR, Cleveland Museum of Art, Thessaloniki Megaron Hall, Tbilisi National Music Center and international festivals like Edinburgh, Athens, Monte Carlo and Hong Kong festivals.
the famed whirling ceremony to audience and critical acclaim in many prestigious halls including Sydney Opera House, Brussels BOZAR, Cleveland Museum of Art, Thessaloniki Megaron Hall, Tbilisi National Music Center and international festivals like Edinburgh, Athens, Monte Carlo and Hong Kong festivals.
Sema (whirling) rituals evoke the call for “human love,” “brotherhood” and “tolerance” associated with the great mystic, Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi, who spoke to humanity over 700 years ago with the invitation “Come! Whoever you are, come! ”
It is an enchanting tradition and performance everyone should see at least once in a lifetime!
It is an enchanting tradition and performance everyone should see at least once in a lifetime!
COUNTRIES PERFORMED:
Multiple tours in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Monaco, the UK and the US besides Turkey.
SELECTED REVIEWS:
Multiple tours in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Monaco, the UK and the US besides Turkey.
SELECTED REVIEWS:
The signs for the Eadweard Muybridge photography exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Art just as easily could have described this performance by the Istanbul Music and Sema Group: "Time Stands Still."
The mesmerizing music, graceful poetry and the dancing of the whirling dervishes transported the audience to a place beyond time.
The first half of the concert was devoted to the poetry of Rumi (read, thankfully, in English) and the performance of several hymns on traditional Turkish instruments by the nine-musician ensemble. The dervishes took the stage for the second half. Their hypnotic spinning, the play of light on their white skirts, and the spellbinding music all came together to create a meditative tone.
The mesmerizing music, graceful poetry and the dancing of the whirling dervishes transported the audience to a place beyond time.
The first half of the concert was devoted to the poetry of Rumi (read, thankfully, in English) and the performance of several hymns on traditional Turkish instruments by the nine-musician ensemble. The dervishes took the stage for the second half. Their hypnotic spinning, the play of light on their white skirts, and the spellbinding music all came together to create a meditative tone.
Less performance than sacred ritual, it was a reverent, luminous event.
Peggy Latkovich, Plain Dealer
You might not understand the finer points of their religion but ecstatic trance is universal. The place to which the dervishes take you is a rich and neccessary part of the human spirit.
Rose Mulready
At a time when the West is fascinated by or fearful of, most things Islamic, this Turkish group of nine dancers should take some beating as the festival's most exotic show.
Peggy Latkovich, Plain Dealer
You might not understand the finer points of their religion but ecstatic trance is universal. The place to which the dervishes take you is a rich and neccessary part of the human spirit.
Rose Mulready
At a time when the West is fascinated by or fearful of, most things Islamic, this Turkish group of nine dancers should take some beating as the festival's most exotic show.
It is hard to imagine that it won't at least be mesmerising.
Neil Jillett, The Sunday Age Agenda
You might not understand the finer points of their religion but ecstatic trance is universal. The place to which the dervishes take you is a rich and necessary part of the human spirit.
Rose Mulready, Inpress Issue : 787 Review
A truly unique visual and spritual spectacle.
Chloe Flynn, State of the Arts
Neil Jillett, The Sunday Age Agenda
You might not understand the finer points of their religion but ecstatic trance is universal. The place to which the dervishes take you is a rich and necessary part of the human spirit.
Rose Mulready, Inpress Issue : 787 Review
A truly unique visual and spritual spectacle.
Chloe Flynn, State of the Arts
From the mystical traditions of ancient Turkey and Konya comes one of the most mesmerizing and graceful dance rituals in the world.
The Whirling Dervishes will introduce the phenomenon that has fascinated people for over seven centuries.
Chloe Flynn
Spinning a great story
Nothing can prepare you for the experience. And nothing will ever emulate the moment. The moment I speak of is when the eight whirling dervishes begin their mesmerising twirling ceremony.
The Whirling Dervishes will introduce the phenomenon that has fascinated people for over seven centuries.
Chloe Flynn
Spinning a great story
Nothing can prepare you for the experience. And nothing will ever emulate the moment. The moment I speak of is when the eight whirling dervishes begin their mesmerising twirling ceremony.
Strophic songs and poems awaken the mind, the soul and our love, with their ghost like presence - measured, contained and hypnotic.
The musicians and singers perform in a closed, internal world, summoning and gathering the energy for the rapture of the whirling moment.
Xenia Hanusiak, Herald Sun Arts & Entertainment
Pure pleasure in graceful, spiritual ceremony
Seven centuries later, the sacred ceremony of the Whirling Pure pleasure in graceful, spiritual ceremony
Xenia Hanusiak, Herald Sun Arts & Entertainment
Pure pleasure in graceful, spiritual ceremony
Seven centuries later, the sacred ceremony of the Whirling Pure pleasure in graceful, spiritual ceremony
Seven centuries later, the sacred ceremony of the Whirling Dervishes – inspired by Rumi’s teachings – is a timely reminder of this mystic’s powerful message of universal love.
Jessica Nicholas, The Age
Only rarely do most of us encounter dance as a private act of surrender to the divine. And so the Islamic ceremony of sema... demands a shift in aesthetic sensibility. The seemingly endless rotations of its dancers are intended not for us but for Allah. Twirling 20 to 30 times a minute, with the right hand turned heavenward to receive God's grace and the left turned down to convey that grace to Earth, the nine dervishes, their eyes half-closed, seemed oblivious... after a time their movements also seemed to melt into one another. The mild tedium of watching the dervishes gradually turned into meditation. Their dance became a prayer, and we were all part of it."
David O'Reilly, Philadelphia Inquirer
The whirling of dervishes... is one method of polishing the human heart, a 700-year old discipline that allows a devotee to experience the immediate... What was striking then about the sema ceremony they performed was its symbolism. The men dropped their black cloaks for the white of an egoless, ecstatic resurrection. Their turning was steady, their bowing gestures humble. The deeply scalloped edges of their white hems, which billowed like flowing surf as they turned counterclockwise, created an image of men floating between this world and an invisible one suffused with divine love... (t)here is something touching about the way the men fall out of formation at a certain note, looking chastened as they cross their arms across their shoulders like children pulled back from a dangerous brink.."
Debra Cash, Boston Globe
The sections of the ritual focus on the relationships between body and soul, man and God, lover and beloved, with an ideal of submission to God reiterated throughout. This theme and the repetition inherent in the music and dancing take the performance completely outside the realm of conventional entertainment. However, its sense of oneness and yearning for transcendence can speak deeply to any contemporary audience willing to give the event the concentration it deserves.
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
As the six men slowly raised their arms, the full skirts of their gowns belling out, the whirling and the music melded into an act of ecstatic prayer. Acts of faith are outwith star ratings: this one is simply a privilege to watch.
Mary Brennan, The Herald
Jessica Nicholas, The Age
Only rarely do most of us encounter dance as a private act of surrender to the divine. And so the Islamic ceremony of sema... demands a shift in aesthetic sensibility. The seemingly endless rotations of its dancers are intended not for us but for Allah. Twirling 20 to 30 times a minute, with the right hand turned heavenward to receive God's grace and the left turned down to convey that grace to Earth, the nine dervishes, their eyes half-closed, seemed oblivious... after a time their movements also seemed to melt into one another. The mild tedium of watching the dervishes gradually turned into meditation. Their dance became a prayer, and we were all part of it."
David O'Reilly, Philadelphia Inquirer
The whirling of dervishes... is one method of polishing the human heart, a 700-year old discipline that allows a devotee to experience the immediate... What was striking then about the sema ceremony they performed was its symbolism. The men dropped their black cloaks for the white of an egoless, ecstatic resurrection. Their turning was steady, their bowing gestures humble. The deeply scalloped edges of their white hems, which billowed like flowing surf as they turned counterclockwise, created an image of men floating between this world and an invisible one suffused with divine love... (t)here is something touching about the way the men fall out of formation at a certain note, looking chastened as they cross their arms across their shoulders like children pulled back from a dangerous brink.."
Debra Cash, Boston Globe
The sections of the ritual focus on the relationships between body and soul, man and God, lover and beloved, with an ideal of submission to God reiterated throughout. This theme and the repetition inherent in the music and dancing take the performance completely outside the realm of conventional entertainment. However, its sense of oneness and yearning for transcendence can speak deeply to any contemporary audience willing to give the event the concentration it deserves.
Lewis Segal, Los Angeles Times
As the six men slowly raised their arms, the full skirts of their gowns belling out, the whirling and the music melded into an act of ecstatic prayer. Acts of faith are outwith star ratings: this one is simply a privilege to watch.
Mary Brennan, The Herald
