Ciara Healy – seven
Music and dance are gateways into other worlds, worlds where the things that matter, are not necessarily the things we have been told are important. A whirling Dervish finds himself to be part of a continuum, as essentially nature- bound. Turning, twirling, he experiences a strange feeling of being held in a dream, momentarily surrounded by beings as ephemeral and incomprehensible as he is himself. The neat and orderly designs of daily life break apart. Spinning, he sees the deep below and can only respond with broken words, inarticulate words, a shuffling of feet, for now all around him is a great transparency, where everything is witnessed. Rumi’s books are thrown by Shems of Thabri into a stream. The letters dissolve in the water. Knowledge which does not take us beyond ourselves is far worse than ignorance.