Some oriental dancers perform a stage version of a "Zar" dance which usually involves
hair tossing and swaying. It is perfectly acceptable to do this. But it is important to understand
that trance dancing is much more than this theatrical interpretation. It is part of a religious
ceremony intended to cure an illness caused by a demon. While it is possible, and very dramatic,
to do a Zar type dance as entertainment, the true Zar is a religious ceremony. To make this more
clear, the following explains what a Zar ceremony involves.

The use of acting-out or possession trances has a history going back to the cult of
Dionysos and the Corybantes. What little we know of these cults strongly resembles the zar cult
as practiced in modern Christian Ethiopia, as well as in the Sudan and throughout the middle
east. This kind of trance is also related to the fire walking still practiced in Thrace, one of the
homelands of Dionysos. The whirling dervishes of Konya in Turkey also enter a type of trance
while dancing. Konya is also one of the ancestral homes of Phrygian Dionysos.

Zar cults involve groups with specific membership, generally women, which require an
initiation process. The trancers impersonate various spirits and act out their roles, often in detail.
Each Zar spirit has his or her characteristic whirl called gurri which includes a series of rapid
turns. The intent of the ceremony is not to exorcise the demon, but to work out an
accommodation with it. These societies provide women both entertainment and religious
consolation. These cults thrive despite traditional Islamic beliefs. In fact, religious clerics in the
Sudan consider the zayran (zar demons) to belong to the class of spirits known as jinn, whose
existence the Quran substantiates. They are generally considered to be amoral, capricious,
hedonistic and self-indulgent. Zar cults in the Sudan thrive in both city and country, although the
city groups may be better organized. In Khartoum and Omdurman there are a number of full-
time, professional zar practioners, male (homosexual and therefore sexually neutral), and female
dancers (shaykha) who are paid for their services and attract large followings of the possessed.
This is a very serious procedure, according to an American woman who was allowed to see one
of these ceremonies, and the participants are genuinely afraid when a spirit appears.

The Zar ceremony is conducted in this way: When musicians and participants are
assembled, the patient is brought in. The incense is lit, and the drumming begins. Appropriate
chants and rhythms are played to summon the spirits. A number of women may be possessed by
the same spirit and exhibit it simultaneously. When the patient is finally able to identify the
spirit by which she is possessed, it is drawn into dialogue. Some sort of animal sacrifice is
usually offered to the offending spirit. It may be placated with gifts and other offerings. Next
morning the group mightl go in procession to the Nile (or local body of water) with remnants of
the sacrificial meal, and the instruments and participants are cleanses in the river.

There is a form of Persian religious dance, called the Hadra, which is an exorcism dance,
similar to the zar. The Tunisians also have a true trance dance, the Stambali, performed by
Tunisian blacks in relation to their patron saint, Sidi Saad. It is performed in sanctuaries and in
the homes of those who need its therapeutic powers. The Stambali involves the sacrifice of an
animal, as does the Zar.