What is Dances of Universal Peace?
The Dances of Universal Peace (DUP) are a spiritual practice that employs singing and dancing the sacred phrases of the world’s religions to raise consciousness and promote peace between diverse religions. Five to 500 dancers stand in a circle, often around a leader and musicians with acoustic instruments in the center. They combine chants from many world faiths with dancing, whirling, and a variety of movement with singing. Participants chant mantras in Sanskrit, Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, and other sacred languages while performing simple choreographed movements designed to embody the spiritual meaning of each phrase. All dances are participatory and spectating is somewhat discouraged because joy is the goal, as opposed to the technical performance of specified dance steps or forms.
Origins & lineage
The very first dance took place on 16 March, 1968 in San Francisco, California. Samuel L. Lewis, also known as Murshid Samuel Lewis and Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti (October 18, 1896 – January 15, 1971), was an American mystic and horticultural scientist who founded what became the Sufi Ruhaniat International, a branch of the Chishtia Sufi lineage. After a lifetime of spiritual study with teachers East and West, primarily Inayat Khan and Nyogen Senzaki, Lewis was recognized simultaneously as a Zen master and Sufi murshid (senior teacher) by Eastern representatives of the two traditions.
In 1919 he met Rabia Martin, Hazrat Inayat Khan’s first western mureed and began his long association with her. Around that time he also began formal Zen training with Nyogen Sensaki, a Rinzai monk and one of the foremost early teachers of Zen in the United States. In 1923 he had the first of several audiences with Sufi mystic Inayat Khan and received initiation from him. Lewis was deeply influenced by his contact and spiritual apprenticeship with two people: Hazrat Inayat Khan, who first brought the message of universal Sufism to the West in 1910, and Ruth St. Denis, a feminist pioneer in the modern dance movement in America and Europe.
In 1967, whilst recovering from a heart attack in a hospital Lewis reported that he heard the voice of God say, “I make you spiritual leader of the hippies.” In his early 70’s SAM began to create the Dances as a dynamic method to promote “Peace through the Arts”. His original body of work included about 50 dances, spiritual walks and teachings. Lewis died in January 1971 as a result of a fall one month earlier.
How it’s practiced
The Dances of Universal Peace are a participatory group spiritual practice facilitated by a Dance Leader. The Leader teaches the group the sacred phrase, music, and movements, and after a short practice, participants enter the Dance with live music and/or singing accompaniment. Dances are facilitated by a dance leader who often plays a drum, guitar, flute or other stringed instrument.
Each dance is taught afresh at each gathering. Movements range from simple stepping patterns in circular formations to more complex choreography involving partner exchanges, whirling, and symbolic gestures. The steps are, for the most part, quite simple, straightforward, and are often related to the words sung while dancing — mantras or prayers from many religions and spiritual practices (Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Inuit, indigenous people from many countries…). Many dances are choreographed with movements, steps, and gestures encouraging dancers to explore for deeper mystical meanings of the dance.
Dancers of all levels, including children, are able to follow along and dance together. Typical sessions last one to three hours and may include anywhere from five to twenty individual dances, often concluding with silent meditation or free movement.
Dances of Universal Peace today
The number of Dances has now surpassed 500 and continues to grow throughout the many different countries of the world. The Dances have developed into a global movement due to the work of the International Network for the Dances of Universal Peace founded in 1982 by Neil Douglas-Klotz and Tasnim Fernandez, who at that time were teachers in the Sufi Ruhaniat International and Sufi Order International respectively.
Dances were originally performed at camps and meetings with a distinctly New Age and alternative feel but have increasingly been offered in diverse places of worship and more secular places such as schools, colleges, prisons, hospices, residential homes for those with special needs, and holistic health centers. They have been presented at the Olympics, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and other ecumenical gatherings and conferences around the world. Weekly or monthly dance circles meet in hundreds of locations across North America, Europe, Australia, and increasingly in Asia, Latin America, and the former Soviet states.
Access to Dances of Universal Peace typically occurs through local weekly or monthly circles listed on regional networks, weekend workshops, week-long camps, and leadership training programs offered through Dances of Universal Peace International and regional affiliates.
Common misconceptions
The Dances of Universal Peace are not traditional folk dances from any single culture, despite sometimes being called “Sufi dances” or “dervish dances.” They are a modern synthesis created by an American teacher drawing on multiple traditions. They are not performance art—observers are discouraged and participation is central to the experience.
While rooted in Sufism, the practice is not exclusively Islamic and does not require adherence to any particular faith tradition. The question of “cultural appropriation” and sensitivity to the traditions one encounters in the Dances is raised during these days of increasing awareness of this question. My approach has always been to make every effort to be respectful, accurate and reverential in teaching and doing Dances in the traditions of others as well as my own. This remains an ongoing conversation among practitioners.
The Dances are also not primarily a physical exercise or fitness practice, though movement is integral. The emphasis is on spiritual experience, not athletic ability or technical precision.
How to begin
The most direct entry point is attending a local Dances of Universal Peace circle. The Dances of Universal Peace International website (dancesofuniversalpeace.org) maintains a directory of circles worldwide. Most circles welcome first-time participants without advance registration and require no prior experience with dance or meditation.
For those seeking deeper understanding, Spiritual Dance and Walk: An Introduction to the Dances of Universal Peace (PeaceWorks, 2003) offers notation for foundation dances. Neil Douglas-Klotz’s writings on the Aramaic teachings of Jesus and the Sufi path provide theological context for the universalist vision underlying the practice. The Sufi Ruhaniat International, the order Samuel Lewis founded, also offers retreats and teachings that contextualize the Dances within the broader landscape of contemporary Sufism and interspiritual practice.