Spiritual performers will bring an ancient tradition to life with hypnotic music, colorful costumes and the sight of dervishes whirling on stage.
The Foundation for Inter-Cultural Dialogue and the Fellowship of Faiths and Cultures club at ASU are co-sponsoring a performance featuring the Whirling Dervishes of Rumi at Grady Gammage Memorial Auditorium on Wednesday.
The group has performed at 10 other universities in addition to ASU.
Economics senior Ahmet Alan, a member of the fellowship, said the Dervishes originated in Turkey from the inspiration of "Sufi" Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi, a well-known Turkish poet.
According to the foundation's brochure about the event, Rumi wrote about divine love and illumination.
"The world is created for love, so they [Dervishes] try to reach the divine love," said president of the fellowship and mathematics doctorate student Ali Kemal Unver.
The event will feature Turkish performers "whirling" to spiritual music, Ahmet said.
"It's a rare opportunity to experience a mesmerizing seven-century-old ritual, incredible performance featuring beautiful costumes, hypnotic live music with flutes, string and percussion and the amazing sight of the Dervishes whirling on the stage," he said.
"They spin around and they go down, and they go up without losing balance," he said.
"They are centered and turning around and opening their hands -- one hand is receiving information from God while the other hand is sharing information with people present," he added.
Unver said the dancing is a kind of meditation, and the aim is to become closer to God.
"Everything in the world is basically revolving -- the world, the sun, electrons and protons," Unver said.
Revolving is everything, so these people revolve and try to get closer to God, he said.
"Experiencing the Whirling Dervishes is like being transported on a magic carpet ride, with the exotic music creating a sense of inner rapture," Ahmet said.
The performance will start at 7:30 p.m., and it will last about two hours. Tickets range from $22 to $42.
Reach the reporter at jourdan.rassas@asu.edu.
