Essence Creates Form
The Dunyati Alembic is the performance wing of the Dervish Society of America, under the direction of Dunya Dianne McPherson. The performers share Dancemeditation as a dominant influence in their self-understanding. Performative presentations are a framing of group and personal practices, with a vision of absorption into Beauty and Mystery.
An alembic––an alchemical still––developed circa 800 AD by the Arab alchemist Jabir ibn Hayyan, was an apparatus for distillation. Over time, the word alembic has taken on a metaphorical meaning referring to a vessel that refines or transmutes. Dunyati, from the name given to Dunya by her Sufi teacher, Adnan Sarhan, means 'the world, all of manifested creation' and has lead Dunya directly to her spiritually embodied Dancemeditation work.
The Alembic began forming into being in 2005.
The core members are:
Dunya, Nisaa Christie, Kate Russel, & Anita Teresa.
Its ring of orbiting dancers includes:
Carleen Bevans, Katherine Carbone, Annabelle Keil, Zahava Griss, Shamsi Pettus, and Krys Statho.
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