The Whirling Dervishes

Tonight I saw a dance and music show that was put on by a group of Dervishes or Sufis. It was really incredible, it's pretty impossible to describe what it looks like or what they do, but they basically have this intensely rhythmic music that they dance to and they spin around in circles - this one guy literally spun non-stop for about 30-40 minutes and then stopped on a dime without even wobbling. they had really colorful skirts that they wear and when they spin it looks really cool. These groups originated with the Sufis in the 12th or 13th century, and they exist in different orders (like monks) all over the middle east, north africa and south asia. They're pretty damn old!!! Sufism is a type of Islamic mysticism, so they are muslims but a bit different than the norm... here's a link to learn a little bit about Sufism (i really liked reading about it in my Islamic Literature class):
Sufism's religious and poetic underpinnings:
http://www.arches.uga.edu/~godlas/Sufism.html
one of the Sufi orders started by the famous poet Rumi:
http://www.sufism.org/