Guedra

The guedra trance dance comes from the Tuareg “blue people” from southern Morocco and the West Sahara.

The name guedra comes from a big cooking pot, covered with an animal skin to make a drum, an essential element of the dance. With a slow heavy drumbeat, the veiled dancer flicks her fingers and slowly unveils her head, revealing a myriad of tiny braids, some formed into a crown, and all decorated with shells, agates, and other talismans. As the tempo increases, she begins to toss her head to the beat of the drum, following the clapping and the chanting of the tribe.

The intensity and her entrancement increases until, unconscious, she falls to the ground. From the Egyptian zar to the leilat of the Gnaoua of Morocco, trance rituals release evil spirits, or dispell bad energy and restore harmony of balance.