FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Whirling dervishes, local members of a Sufi organization, the Mevlevi Order of America, practice in Damon Hall on the Academy of the Pacific campus in Alewa Heights for a show Friday at the University of Hawaii Campus Center ballroom. Whirling, Aisha Allen, left, and others while Kim Payton stands in the center.

Flying across the floor

Whirling dervishes, joined by musicians from Turkey, will herald 13th-century poet Rumi

One of the most exotic forms of sacred dance can be seen next week when local members of a meditation group perform in a 700-year-old Sufi spiritual ritual as whirling dervishes.

Musicians from Turkey will accompany the "semazens," or whirlers, in a performance Friday at the University of Hawaii Campus Center ballroom.

The 8 p.m. event will celebrate the contributions of Rumi, a 13th-century Turkish poet whose work is still popular even in the Western world. His writing on love, tolerance and inclusiveness of all spiritual paths led the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization to proclaim 2007 the Year of Rumi.

"Rumi speaks in the language of the heart, which is universal and timeless," said Valerie Noor Payton, a leader of the Honolulu chapter of the Mevlevi Order of America. Many of his fans today consider his voluminous work love poetry, but, she said, "It wasn't originally written as love poetry for the individual, but love of the divine."

Rumi was born into the tradition of Sufi mysticism rooted in Islam and founded the Mevlevi school of Sufi teaching. In modern times there are two main branches of Sufism, Payton explained. One is distinctly Muslim, and the other, which attracts people from the Western world, is universalist, accepting of all religions.

"The Mevlevi school is a middle path," said Payton. "The teachers are Muslim; the members are of all different religions." In modern-day Mevlevi practice, women can be whirlers as well as men.

FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM John Sausedo, right, and other dancers circle Valerie Noor Karima Payton, left, in the center.

According to tradition, when Rumi was spontaneously composing his rhyming couplets, he would revolve slowly around a pole. His followers created the whirling ritual after his death.

The stately "sema" performance will mark the poet-teacher's death, his "passing from the circle of time."

"You have to surrender to the movement," said Honolulu psychologist Kim Payton. "You have to be focused in the moment. It's a very relaxed, intense but free form of concentration." He said the movement has a purifying aspect: "As negative emotions evaporate, it creates a very joyous state very much like flying." It doesn't just happen the first time a person takes to the floor; it's a learning experience that can take months, he said.

He compared the whirlers in synchronized movement to "planets in procession around the sun. You are aware of others and respectful of their space."

The local dancers will be accompanied by Necati Celik playing a lute; Jelaleddin Bicer on a reed flute and vocalist Timucin Cevikoglu. Jelaleddin Loras, a Maui resident and founder of the Mevlevi Order of America, will direct the performance.