Derviche (Dervish)
The Franco-Syrian band Bab Assalam in collaboration with the circus artist Sylvain Julien transcend musics and traditions to compose an exhilarating performance.
In 2010, Bab Assalam gave its last concert in Syria in the Aleppo Citadel alongside ten whirling dervishes. It was a celebration. Then came war, massacres and exile. The band, gathered today in France, reinvents the myth with a concert « whirled » where trance becomes bewitching circus poetry.
The hypnotnic world of Sufi dance dates back to Rûmi, the great 13th century Persian poet who advocated the quest of internal spirituality, a mystique focused on tolerance. Bab Assalam combines this spiritual quest with a new form of performance where movements dissolve to be at one with music. No more dervishes belonging to the past, it’s up to Sylvain Julien to make the world go round, as he juggles with hoops constantly searching for perpetual motion.
Bab Assalam composes a westernized version of the dervish circle. No text, video nor story but a musical suite transcended by the art of the circus artist, which integrates the voices of the two Syrian musicians, surrounded by ouds and percussions, with the more contemporary sounds of bass clarinet and electro music. An ode to love for a long trance leading us to ecstasy.
cast / production
music Bab Assalam | with Khaled Aljaramani oud and singing | Mohanad Aljaramani percussions, oud and singing | Raphaël Vuillard clarinets and live electronic music | Sylvain Julien dance and hoops | lighting design Dominique Ryo | technical collaboration and sound design Emmanuel Sauldubois
production: Bab Assalam, L’autre côté du Monde Production | coproduction: Théâtre de la Croix-Rousse – Lyon
  1h10