Wekalet El Ghouri is a cultural center, located in a beautiful structure in the El Azhar area of Cairo, whose activity has been taken care of since 2005 by the Ministry of Culture and the Cultural Development Fund (CDF).
Today Wekalet El-Ghouri has become a real landmark for offering cultural events, among which the most popular is celebrated every week in the dance show El Tannoura.
About Wekalet El-Ghouri
Wekalet El-Ghouri is part of an architectural group built at the end of the Mamluk era and its importance goes back to the fact that it was founded in the era of the Mamluk, Al-Ashraf Abu Al-Nasr Qunsuwah El-Ghouri, who assumed the rule of Egypt from 1501 to 1516 and was, thanks to his intelligence, the last Ruler of Egypt With the end of his era came the Ottoman invasion.
Sultan Qunsuwah El-Ghouri built his important architectural group in the history of architecture, which consists of Wekalet El-Ghouri – El-Ghouri Mosque, a dome, and Al-Ghoury School.
These buildings are located at the end of El-Ghouri street at the intersection with Al-Azhar street and take the form of a distinctive architectural block.
The setting of this beautiful building is Al Azhar, an area adjacent to the famous Khan el Khalili market and dotted with other important cultural centers, such as Beit el Harrawi, Beit el Sehaimy, El Tannoura Performance.
As for Wekalet El-Ghouri, it is considered a model of what agencies were like in that era; fortunately, a large part of it remains, which has helped restore, repair, and return it to its original state.
Since the end of 2000, Wekalet El-Ghouri entered the restoration and documentation project, which took five years.
In October 2005, Wekalet El-Ghouri reopened its doors as an archaeological site and a cultural center working for cultural and human development in the Islamic region of Cairo.
Its cultural and artistic activities coincide with what is happening in this region in terms of architecture and urbanism.
Wekalet El-Ghouri art is the fourth cultural center established by the cultural development fund in the Al-Darb Al-Ahmar area after a successful experiment in creating creative centers in the old houses of Cairo.
Wekalet El-Ghouri, also known as the Arts Center, benefited from all this experience and all previous experiences as it developed the goals of creativity centers in the archaeological houses of Islamic Cairo.
The center has added another dimension, which is in step with the restoration projects of monuments in Islamic Cairo and supports the enormous activity that takes place in the fields of architecture and urban planning in addition to cultural development.
Human development through culture, which are the basic objectives for which the cultural development fund was established.
Creative centers, including Wekalet El-Ghouri, are tools to provide cultural services to tourists and local people, so these tools have been equipped to play this role in the best way to promote tourism.
As there is already a modern stage at Wekalet El-Ghouri, equipped with dressing rooms and chairs, a spacious exhibition hall with a capacity to receive 300 spectators, and a fountain in the center made of eight-sided marble.
In addition to a souvenir and book outlet, the center is technically equipped with high-end sound and lighting systems.
Tanoura’s Band for Traditional Arts
The Tanoura band was formed in February 1988 at the Qasr El-Ghouri headquarters and performs regularly throughout the year.
The band has participated in all national events within the Republic of Egypt and has also participated in the cultural exchange program outside and the many international festivals.
The Tanoura band was formed in February 1988 at the Qasr El-Ghouri venue and performs regularly throughout the year. The band has participated in all national events within the Republic of Egypt and has also participated in the cultural exchange program outside and the many international festivals.
The popularity of this event requires a bit of patience, given the long line that punctually forms, for the many tourists and locals who want to attend the magnificent show.
This takes place in three stages, the first dedicated to vocal performances, the second to the heart of the Sufi ritual, (El Darwish), the third, more irreverent, in the explosion of dances and exhibition of colorful traditional costumes.
The sequences of the show
1- vocal performance:
This is a popular musical performance that leads to an overview of the potential of each instrument and the skills of the musician.
2- Tanoura (dervish) Sufi dance:
The Tanoura Sufi dance has a special character, unique of its kind. This performance is based on circular movements and draws from the Sufi Islamic sense that has a philosophical and semantic basis.
The dance elements of the band depend on the dancer, who represents the sun, wrapping around himself and him dancers are representing the planets, which is essentially due to the concept of Mevlevi that the movement in the universe starts from one point and ends at the same point, so the movement is circular.
3- Tanoura Dance Performance:
It is a dance based on the demonstration of the dancer’s skills (the lapping) in the use and formation of skirts and their physical form with the use of musical phrases and a fast and varied rhythm.
Those who have had to attend a performance of dancing dervishes will immediately notice the more colorful and flashy style, both in music and dance, due to the influence of elements of Egyptian popular culture.
It remains however the act of religious valence, for which the pose of the dancer, turns an arm to the earth and one to the sky, with the precise symbolic value of the connection between the two levels.
The circular movement of the dancer represents the distancing from the earthly dimension, until the achievement of ecstasy, in the attempt of connection with the paradisiacal dimension.
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