RE: Heavenly dance
Back to the heavenly dance I came across this other day when doing some research on Cortesans. David and Cub were talking about music not to sure whether it was this or another thread but this seems to fit in here.
Living legends of entertainment that did it in style outside of the temples
The music of the baijis has been around in India since recorded history.
They are mentioned in ancient texts and there are exquisite Mughal paintings of women entertainers. However the tradition which had lasted centuries was all but eradicated with the advent of the British.
Some baijis remained legends well into their autumn years - alluring their audiences with solely by their musical prowess. The early photos of Gauhar Jan for example show a fairly average looking woman, with not a hint of the unearthly beauty of the goddesses of the Bollywood screen, but at her peak, Gauhar Jan was the "princess of Calcutta" according to Professor Joep Bor, from the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music.
Lalita du Perron from the University of London specialises in the music and poetry of the baijis. "The British took over the courts and curtailed their power and finance the courts began to disappear as the 20th century came on and that really got rid of courtesan life." And the growing independence movement of the late 19th and early 20th century didn't help, she adds. "People wanted to emulate a western model and so women singing, dancing, using their bodies in a sexual transaction became unacceptable."
http://www2.rnw.nl/rnw/en/features/cultureandhistory/050826vh?view=Standard
So music can die out and sometimes be reborn again if and when rediscovered, just like scripture and the ancient mystery teachings.
being love
Kim xx
RE: Heavenly dance
Of course the heavenly dance is enjoyed by others in other religions.
The Sufi's being some of them. I love this quote from Rumi, the mystic and wonderful poet.
"I don't dance to find God, I dance because I've found God!"
being love
Kim x
RE: Heavenly dance
There was a 60-minute documentary rather late two nights ago on Sufi dancing. I taped it as I couldn't see it then, and it's so good I may not wipe it. The presenter, as I recall a Hindu who has developed an interest in Islam through Sufism, went from one country to another, showing how styles of Sufi - actually it was more about music than dance, but dance too - differ enormously, but with the same basic precepts. A superb programme, I thought. They did give a link for more info somewhere at [link= http://www.bbc.co.uk ]www.bbc.co.uk[/link] and then somewhere on that.
Two things really came across:
1. All the Sufis in different countries said, "This is not dance; this is ritual."
(As an aside, the whirling dervishes - and they said Rumi was one - I always wondered "Don't they get very dizzy?" It was said that it's all done, as you could see, in deep prayer, and you do get dizzy for about two months - then the brain adjusts. Actually they whirl fairly slowly. It looks like just one of a million ways of focussing the mind to me.)
2. Most important of all, what came across almost as the theme of the programme, is that there are millions of Sufis in all the Islamic nations (though they are banned and work underground in Turkey which tries to be non-Islamic), and they are the very, total opposite of Islamic fundamentalism. It's basically a war being waged for hearts within Islam. The fundies, who are behind the violence, proclaim music and dance as sinful. By utter contrast, Sufis all see music as a uniting force and a great way to God. But they are so moderate and open that people of all other religions join them. In fact a week-long (I think) festival is held in Morocco each year featuring Sufi music from around the world. All sorts of people were there and I found the idea caught me too....
Sufism and its music - which is "popular" music even in some places - may be the ultimate answer in overcoming Islamic fundamentalism.
V
RE: Heavenly dance
David
Please have a look at this thread and tell me if you think it was the same programme:
http://www.healthypages.net/forum/tm.asp?m=277007
If so, the presenter was not a Hindu but William Dalrymple who has lived in India for years and writes the most superb travel books I've ever read.
I think it must be the same film from what you say of it. Believe me, it was great to see it on a bigger screen. I thought it was a wonderful programme and we got to hear some of the performers live. I am really attracted to Sufism and feel that one of my 'projects' this winter may be to learn more about it. When I discovered the poetry of Hafiz, I learned that Sufism was often attacked by Islamic fundamentalists right from the earliest times. Hence a lot of their poetic vocabulary is symbolic: 'the beloved' refers to God not to an earthly romantic attachment. In the film I watched they made the point that Sufi music is now crossing over into the mainstream of 'clubbing' because it is, after all, the original trance music. I have read elsewhere that we humans have always sought heightened awareness through trance - on another thread i mentioned the drumming which accompanies the piercing of Hindu followers of Lord Murugan. Trance music is fascinating....
Anyway, do let me know if you're referring to the same programme.
Love
Sunanda xxxx
RE: Heavenly dance
Sunanda, hi,
Without looking at your link, I recognise the guy's name. Yes, the same programme. "Bigger screen"? Does this mean you saw it on cinema or something?
It was an eye-opener for me as I had the impression that Sufis were a kind of secret minority (as per the impression gained from books such as Idries Shah). Here they were a major bloc within Islam and fairly out in the open, or at least when performing in public. How opposite to Islamic fundamentalism can you get? The problem being though that it is so different as to be virtually a different religion, and perhaps unrecognisable as Islam to those brought up in a traditonal or hard-line way - I don't know. The annual "Fest" in Fez attracted me!
Yes, as an aside comment it was made perfectly clear that all the references such as in Rumi's poetry is symbolic, and they even quoted him as saying or writing "When I write of wine I'm talking about communion with God" - to settle that old thread which I recall. I'd also thought the dervishes (whirling) was more a kind of 'abandonment' but it is actually so wonderfully controlled and graceful. Since it has "four movements" like a symphony I don't know if I would call it trance so much as controlled meditation.
So re the thread, "Heavenly Dance", I like their definition that "It is not dance, but ritual". And to repeat myself, this could be the solution to the fundy problem in Islam - but then where were / are the Sufis when things are going on such as the Taliban, the current governance of Iran, and the state of Iraq? Perhaps they don't get so involved in worldly politics? Or they keep out of sight?
V