Living in Cairo for over six months in 2013 not only allowed me to work on my films, but also freed me to spend some time on my favorite thing in the world, which is making photos. On the other hand, staying longer this time around gave me more opportunities to make new friends who work in Egypt's tourist industry, who showed me an amazing side of Egypt which I didn’t know much about.
One of the places we visited was the Wekalet El-Ghouri, where the Tannoura live show takes place every week on Wednesday and Friday night. Going to see Tannoura live in Cairo was an eye opening insight on a folk art tradition that is still alive and strong today.
If you haven't heard of Tannoura, it is a folk dance tradition with its roots in ancient Sufi twirling, featuring colorful costumes and amazing music. To quote from the website of the Tannoura troupe: "As the major Tanoura dancer moves himself around, the other dancers start to follow in his dancing steps by whirling around him in a great harmony, in order to act out the movement of the planets on space around the sun. Their anti-clockwise movement is a symbol of the movement that the Muslims usually do around ‘The Kaaba’ (the holy shrine in Mecca) during the Pilgrimage."
The show was amazing and very inspiring, so I decided to make a book out of the photography I did during the show, and I would like to share that with you. I hope the carefully curated photographs and selected verses from Rumi I've included will inspire you.
Please check out my book, and leave me a comment. I would like to hear your feedback. Thank you for buying a copy, and supporting my art.
nice
ReplyDeleteThank you
Delete