Mercan Dede and Secret Tribe

Mercan Dede and Secret Tribe0

Ambient electronic dance beats combined with Sufi music and whirling doesn't sound like a typical recipe for kid entertainment. Fortunately, kids aren't hampered by preconceptions of what should be fun. By the end of Mercan Dede and Secret Tribe's performance, hordes of kids had swarmed the stage, dancing maniacally to the multilayered percussion and dance tracks that Dede's band laid down.

Dede looks like your typical DJ, standing guard behind a pair of turntables, but comparisons can stop there. He also plays the ney, a reed flute, and was flanked by a set of mostly teenage virtuosos on percussion, clarinet and trumpet and the kanun (Turkish zither). The sounds the ensemble produces range from spiritual and mesmerizing to all-out dance party free-for-all.

Whirling dervish dancer Mira Burke began and ended the show, spinning in the Sufi style of spiritual dancing. In the final number, she wore an expansive white, double-layered skirt that spun out from her body in standing waves of hypnotic motion.

The show is recommended for ages 7 and up, which seems about right, although my four-year-old daughter was so entranced by the dancing I had to pull her back from the stage.

Doug Kim