The Sufi whirling dance is part of a formal Sufi (Islamic) ceremony and practiced as a type of physically active meditation. The whirling dervishes seek to abandon the ego and personal desires by listening to music, spinning their body in repetitive circles and reach a trance state to be one with God. Another term sometimes used for this type of skirt is the Egyptian version "tanoura", and whirling has developed into a performance dance seen also outside the Islamic world. Our dervish skirt is made of strong, black cotton canvas which is soaked with fire retardant liquid. It is made to wear on the waist with a length to the floor. When the dancer spins, the skirt unfolds into a full horizontal disc. A 13 mm wide, 6 m long kevlar rope is attached with strings to the bottom of the skirt. The waist part is designed so the velcro can be opened with a single move. The main differences between our regular fire skirt and the dervish skirt are the following: Fire skirt: Budget friendly, especially if you already have a fire hoop. Allows for stopping, posing and slow dance. Acts as a costume together with fire fans and our fire crown. Dervish skirt: You need to spin, you cannot stop. Much more fire, more spectacular, more risk, even more suited for a final act. And you can be one with God ;-) The Dervish skirt is much more dangerous - only order if you know EXACTLY what you are doing. Includes: 1x Dervish Skirt 1x Spray Nozzle Important: Do practice A LOT before lighting up. It might seem easy to spin 2-3 minutes in one spot, but it's not easy. Just like other fire juggling equipment, dervish skirts require much practice! Make the bottom part of the skirt wet with a spray. It goes without saying but: Do NOT wear anything synthetic under the skirt. If despite the precautions you get into trouble, the waist part of the dervish skirt is designed so you can open it with a single move to open the velcro. You need to practice this move so much you can do it without thinking! Do not light up the kevlar without practicing this! Spinning is MUCH easier on even ground. It is a good idea to practice on slightly uneven ground (such as grass) because it trains your ankles and stabilizes your moves. But make sure you only perform on perfectly flat ground! Dipping: Unfold the skirt fully into disc form and lay it on the ground. Dip the kevlar using a bottle with a small hole on the top just like you would a sword. If you use a PET (drink) bottle for this, make sure you remove the drink label and clearly mark the bottle to avoid accidentally drinking petrol! Take extra care that absolutely no fuel gets on the skirt! If any fuel at all gets on the skirt, do NOT under any circumstances use the skirt! In this case, put the skirt in the sun for a full day - the fuel will evaporate in this time. We do not recommend that you wash the skirt, because you would wash out the fire retardant liquid (also you cannot separate it from the kevlar). Make sure you have a huge wet fire blanket, a fire extinguisher and a fire safety person. Storage: When storing the dervish skirt, you need to cover the top (skirt) and the bottom (kevlar) part in two different bags. This is necessary to prevent the skirt from soaking in the fuel.
