Ecstatic Circle (1972)
Title
Ecstatic Circle (1972)
Subject
Music--Turkey
Dance--Turkey
Dervishes
URL
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Description
Content description from Alexander Street (https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C3953677):
The Mevlevi Dervish Order was founded in the 13th century by Mevlana Jeladed-din Rumi, a poet and mystic who rebelled against orthodox Islamic beliefs by replacing formal prayers with songs and dances. The Dervish order was banned in Turkey in the early 20th century, but once a year the government allows the Whirling Dervish ceremony to take place at Konya in Anatolia where the religion was founded. This extraordinary occasion is shown as a sequenced presentation with more than sixty-five devotees spinning like tops in a ritualized pattern, ultimately achieving an experience leading to religious ecstasy.
Ephemera: none available
Limitations: This page displays video content associated with a videotape in the CCDR Collections audiovisual library recorded by Joann W. Kealiinohomoku. Please be advised that, because this videotape has not yet been digitized for direct access, we cannot guarantee that the video content on this page is an exact match with the content originally recorded by Dr. Kealiinohomoku. We also cannot guarantee function or access for re-hosted video content.
The Mevlevi Dervish Order was founded in the 13th century by Mevlana Jeladed-din Rumi, a poet and mystic who rebelled against orthodox Islamic beliefs by replacing formal prayers with songs and dances. The Dervish order was banned in Turkey in the early 20th century, but once a year the government allows the Whirling Dervish ceremony to take place at Konya in Anatolia where the religion was founded. This extraordinary occasion is shown as a sequenced presentation with more than sixty-five devotees spinning like tops in a ritualized pattern, ultimately achieving an experience leading to religious ecstasy.
Ephemera: none available
Limitations: This page displays video content associated with a videotape in the CCDR Collections audiovisual library recorded by Joann W. Kealiinohomoku. Please be advised that, because this videotape has not yet been digitized for direct access, we cannot guarantee that the video content on this page is an exact match with the content originally recorded by Dr. Kealiinohomoku. We also cannot guarantee function or access for re-hosted video content.
Original Format
TV broadcast recorded off air by JWK: Betamax tape
Creator
Deben Bhattacharya (director and producer)
Denny Densham and Luc Ekstein (photographers)
Richard Baker (narrator)
Jharna Bose (researcher)
Publisher
Open End Theatre
Date
1972
Citation
“Ecstatic Circle (1972),” Cross-Cultural Dance Resources Collections at Arizona State University, accessed October 6, 2026, https://ccdrcollections.omeka.net/items/show/768.