For my last creative project, I collaborated with Sunita and Theresa to perform a Qawwali dance to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s song “Allah Hoo.” We danced to one particular stanza of the Sufi song that focused on the continuity of Allah from the beginning of the world. We drew our inspiration from Ernst’s work, The Shambhala Guide to Sufism. Ernst states that the Qawwali art form has spread into many different cultures because of the musical ecstasy experienced by those who immerse themselves in the music. The main component of our dance was to form a South Asian dance interpretation of a Sufi devotional song. Most of our dance moves are repetitious and include circular spinning which maintain the elements from the Sufi tradition as well.
For our costumes, we used traditional South Asian dresses along with veils. Initially, we start off with the veils covering our heads and eventually as we become immersed in the music, the veils fall off and are like “long sleeves hanging down over the hand as the sign of ecstasy” (Ernst, 184). Notice how the veils fall off once we move into a spinning trance which is symbolic of the state of ecstasy. The next stage is the raising and lowering of our hands which depict the upwardly motion to call for Allah and bring his presence to Earth. This staggered form of arms movements is commonly used in South Asian dances. This continues until the end of the song when we start spinning. The spinning in unison takes into account the unity with God one experience during devotion. While spinning, I was not able to get a grasp of the reality in front of me, rather I had to shut my eyes to listen to the repetitious characteristic of the song to allow myself to form an understanding of the state I was in.
Forming our own interpretation of the Qawwali allowed us to experience the repeated and vibrant beats of “Allah Hoo.” It allowed us to show and understand how music and dance are used in the Sufi culture to devote one’s self to the divine.
Allah Hoo:
ye zamiin jab na thii, ye jahaan jab na thaa
chaand suraj na the, aasmaan jab na thaa
raaz-e-haq bhii kisii par ayaan jab na thaa
jab na thaa kuch yahaaN, thaa magar tuu hi tuu
The time when there was neither land nor the world
nor moon, sun or the sky,
[and] when truth was not known to anyone.
At that time there was nothing except you.
Link to complete song: http://nusrat.info/allah-hoo-allah-hoo/