To the editor:

Terry Rombeck’s article “Meditative motion” in Saturday’s paper did a good job of describing some of the ways people are using movement and dance as devotional practice. For the most part, he was successful in accurately conveying the underlying principles and ideas of these practices.

However, I had to cringe a bit when I saw the term “Dervish dancing.” There are undoubtedly dervishes who dance. However, the practice I described to Terry in our conversation about devotional movement is simply called “turning” or “sema.” It is done by people who may be called dervishes or semazens, and is a practice begun by the Persian Sufi Saint Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), who is famous today for his poetry. It has been passed down by the Mevlevi order of Sufis, so to say that it is an Islamic tradition is not wrong, but may be too general.

I would like to add that the turn is done not only for the benefit of the person turning, but for everyone in the room who all may enjoy the benefit of the atmosphere of love and blessing (baraka) that is created.

Thank you for the opportunity to provide this clarification.

Malika Lyon,

Lawrence