Sufi Dancers

This is by far my favorite thing we've done in Cairo. We went to see the Sufi dancers in downtown Cairo two weeks ago. We took the metro there, had some Egyptian food, and then found our way to the really amazing building where they put on their performances. It's outdoors, but there's a really high canvas sort of ceiling. It felt like a church--it would be a really neat place to get married.

Anyway, the performance is rare for Egypt because it starts at a set time, ends at a set time, and is free. We got there an hour early, but the place was more than half full already, so we chose to sit at the back so we could stand or sit on our feet if needed. It was odd, because people kept coming in to join the audience (which was standing room only) throughout the whole performance, and about halfway through about a third of the audience got up and left. Very strange to me. The Egyptian ushers kept trying to make us give up Luke's seat, but it was a 2 hour performance that didn't begin till 7:30, so there was no way I was holding him on my lap the whole time. The kid has to have his own seat on a plane, so I figured we were entitled to the seat.


The band came out as the warm-up act. It was made of mostly drums. There were 3 stringed instruments which were not miked but were piercingly loud, and a really comical guy who played finger cymbals. He really hammed it up and totally made the musical part of the show for me.As soon as the music started, Luke got excited and clapped along to the beat. Except for about 10 minutes when he was lying in our laps, he watched the whole performance.

After they played a while, this Sufi dancer came out. It took him a while to get going, but he then spun in circles for 45 minutes. Without stopping. Sometimes he went fast, at others slow, but he never stopped. He had a really enraptured look on his face the whole time.
When this guy finally stopped spinning, we all applauded like crazy, and I thought, "He can't see us applauding. For him, the whole room is still spinning around." He walked off the stage totally unsupported and did not falter one step. I wondered if he went backstage and threw up.

Then three more guys came onstage in even more colorful costumes. I was excited, because I'd seen pictures of the really bright skirts (?) they wore and wasn't impressed with the first guy's get-up!

One of the neatest things about the show is that the dancers have on a long galabeya with a full skirt in a solid color, and then on top of that they wear 2-3 more skirts. During the performance, they untie the top layers and work them up over their heads and spin them around. They do this all while they themselves are spinning. Now, I am an unusually talented hula hooper (one of my hidden abilities). I can still move the hula hoop from my feet, up to my waist, to my neck, and up over my head to my arms (and yes, I'm totally proud of this feat), but I've got NOTHING on these guys. They take those skirts up over their heads and toss them like pizza dough. It's amazing. (Have I used up my quota of "amazing"s yet?)

Toward the very end of the show, they pulled up the last layer of their skirts and made this neat little shape:
Still spinning....

I would've gladly paid as much as we paid to go to the pyramids for this experience. There was not even a donation box.

This is the first thing we've done that made me say, "I wish someone would come visit us in Cairo. That was so cool!" So--come visit!