The tickets for these are free as both the location is owned by and the Troup employed by the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, but such are the popularity of the shows with both Egyptians and tourists that within minutes of the doors opening at 6.30pm the tickets are gone.

Wekalt El-Ghuori is a beautiful old merchants house that has been sympathetically restored and now host music and cultural events. The once open courtyard has now been covered by a permanent tent like roof, and the beautiful fret-work windows that in former years would have preserved the modesty of the women of the household form the prying eyes of men, now just look out onto the courtyard, where at one end a permanent stage sits as testimony to the popularity of the show.

I went there with my Egyptian photographer friend and colleague, Ramy Salem, as part of a reconnaissance for a new photography tour business we are setting up in Cairo. Ramy specializes in commercial and event photography and so we wanted to see whether we could run a course for those interested in this type of photography, using this show as one of the teaching vehicles.

The show itself is spectacular. The mix of live traditional music together with the artistry of the musicians – each performing a solo piece that left the audience spell bound and all of us wondering how they managed to drum with such precision or blow such long sustained notes. But the real highlight of the show are the whirling dervishes – the dancers that enter a trance like state and whirl for up to 45 minutes round and round, altering their body position little by little to create amazing shapes and patterns with their extravagantly colored shirts.

We were fortunate that once inside, we et with a couple of the officials that Ramy knew, who allowed us to wander freely around the edge of the stage during the show, as well as to go up briefly on to the musician balcony to get some unusual perspectives.

This was my first time seeing the show – I didn’t know what to expect and I hadn’t really researched the show thoroughly enough to know what would happen when.

I’ve posted a few of the images that I captured on the night – all shot without flash but showing the wonderful low noise-high ISO capabilities of the Canon 5d Mk11 – that go some way to capture the wonderful sense of colour, motion and dramatic lighting.

I will be returning to re-shoot some of these images for my portfolio, now that I understand the format that the show takes, and how to overcome some of the very challenging lighting conditions.

You can see more of the images in my gallery.