Dance Chronicle | 2021
Sufi Dance, Trance, and Psychophysical Performance: Transcultural Elements in Jerzy Grotowski’s Theater
Abstract
Abstract Jerzy Grotowski, a Western theatrical practitioner who incorporated psychophysical methods to help sustain the immediacy of the body and power of presence in performance, acknowledged the influence of non-Western embodied spiritual practices, such as Sufism and Mevlevi dance. In this article, I propose that the whirling dance of the dervish was a transformational influence on Grotowski and facilitated the development of his psychophysical program of actor training and rehearsing. This influence is under-acknowledged in scholarship on Grotowski, indicating possible anxiety in Western theatrical traditions about the incorporation of spiritual practices, especially those associated with Islam.