Sema

The Semah ( from Arabic sama ʿ: listen ) is an important ritual Dance of the Alevi. He is one of the twelve duties of Cem event, the spiritual assembly of the Alevis. For Semah spiritual songs are played and sung. The Semah is also an element of trance dances in Sufi brotherhoods.

The music is determined by the usul (rhythm / meter ) aksak. The dancers alternate between slow and fast steps and between circular and the center -aligned movement. Characteristic features are rotation about its own axis, whereby a union of man sought by God and nature. The palm of the right hand upward and the left- hand inner surface facing the floor. Turning in a circle and around its own axis symbolizes rotational motions of the planets in their orbits around the Sun, but also the eternal cycles of life and nature. In addition, while dancing the dance and movements of the Alevi sacred crane ( Turkish turna ) be imitated.

In the texts involves both Allah the Prophet Muhammad, his cousin Ali and Hızır, as well as to the man himself: One should always believe in the good in people to not stray from the right path.

In the Far East this originally shamanistic and spiritual dance is called " crane dance " (as in the Turkish turnalar semahi ).