Morocco is known for its rituals and beliefs that have survived over the centuries, remnants of the ancient Mediterranean cultures that once inhabited the region.  These customs remain a large part of Morocco’s modern culture, expressed poetically in the daily lives of its people.  One of the most important aspects of this culture is music, emphasized on every occasion in order to display thoughts and feelings that are impossible to put otherwise into words.  .  Morocco is a country of different landascapes, colors, tastes and shapes.  The Moroccan music is as colorful and diverse as Morocco is.

Day 1: New York – Casablanca

You will depart for Morocco on an overnight, non-stop flight from John F. Kennedy Airport to the Mohamed V Airport in Casablanca, via Royal Air Maroc.

Day 2: Casablanca – Volubilis

You will arrive the following morning at the Casablanca airport, where Sarah Tours staff will greet you and escort you to the city of Volubilis.  Visible for miles, Volubilis is a remarkable site, once the central location for the introduction of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam to the natives of Morocco.  You will spend your day relaxing at the peaceful Volubilis hotel, which overlooks a valley of the city’s ancient ruins.  In the afternoon, you will walk through the first Islamic city in Morocco, Moulay Idriss, home to many Sufi Orders founded throughout the centuries.  This tour will be your initial introduction to Moroccan society with regard to spirituality, as you explore the city’s labyrinth-like streets.  After dinner, you will attend a brief introductory session about Sufi music, followed by a rhythmic celebration, after which you will return to your hotel early for a good night’s sleep.

 Day 3: Volubilis – Moulay Idriss
You will spend your morning exploring Volubilis, the Roman capital of Northwestern Africa, complete with a meditation session amidst the city’s ruins.  You will walk back to your hotel through an ancient olive tree grove, which Martin Scorcese used as a filming location for the Last Temptation of Christ.  You will eat lunch in the hotel gardens, overlooking the legendary Roman ruins, followed by an hour-long drumming workshop including an introduction to the local trance dancers and drummers of the Hmadsha, who are well respected throughout the Islamic world. 

Day 4: Volubilis – Fez
In the morning, you will depart for Fez, where you will check into your hotel, a Moorish Riad in the Medina, and eat lunch upon arrival.  You will devote your afternoon to the exploration of Fez, with a historic tour including visits to the Mellah (the Jewish quarter), the King’s palace, and the Bat’ha Museum of Moroccan Arts.  Afterward, you will participate in a walking tour of the Medina, a walled city with a maze of twisting alleys and blind turns with numerous mosques, shrines, fountains, workshops, and markets.  You will stop at El Hajj Lebbar House for mint tea and an introduction to Issawa spiritual music, followed by dinner at a typical Moroccan restaurant in the Medina.  Afterward, ou will return to the El Hajj Lebbar House for a night of Issawa spiritual chanting and drumming. 

Day 5: Fez – Zallagh
You will have the morning at your leisure, free to do what you please.  In the afternoon, you will attend an introduction to Jajouka rhythm and other traditions, followed by an excursion to Mount Zallagh in the Riff Mountains.  You will meet a mule caravan, which will accompany as you explore the mountains, escorted by the Jajouka musicians and dancers.  Afterward, you will enjoy a mint-tea party at the shrine of Sidi Ahmed Al Barnoussi, a sanctuary for Sufis from all over Morocco, as you watch the sun set over Fez.  You will complete your day with dinner and dancing in a Moroccan restaurant with entertainment by Chaabi musicians. 

Day 6: Fez
You will devote our morning to shopping in the Medina, where you will find a variety of musical instruments and other artifacts.  In the afternoon, you will attend a workshop about Gnawa rhythms, trance ritual, and customs.  After dinner, you will return to the heart of the Medina, where you will attend the Jilala Ceremony, trance dancing, and a Henna ceremony at Dar Hadara Moorish palace.

Day 7: Fez – Azrou – Midelt – Erfoud
In the morning, you will leave Fez and venture into the Atlas Mountains.  Your first experience with the Atlases will probably surprise you, since the hills of the Middle Atlases seem oddly un-Moroccan: they are covered with evergreen pines, tall cedar trees, and poplars, laced with flowing streams.  Azrou, the first real town of the Middle Atlas Mountains, stands at a major junction, functioning as an important center of business and trading for the Berbers who inhabit the region.  At Midelt, the Middle Atlases suddenly give way to the soaring peaks of the High Atlas Mountains, rising behind the town to a distance of over 12,000 feet.  In order to do justice to this tremendous view, you will stop in Midelt for lunch.  Afterward, you will travel to Erfoud via one of the most beautiful of the Southern routes, crossing a dry, red belt of desert, which drops unexpectedly into a valley filled with date palm groves.  Dinner and accommodations will be provided at the Hotel Belere.  Afterward, you will attend a tribal ceremony on the dunes.

Day 8: Merzouga Dunes – Rissani – Erfoud
You will have the morning at your leisure, followed by an excursion to the holy city of Rissani after lunch.  You will then continue your journey to Erg Chebbi and watch the sun set behind the spectacular Merzouga dunes of the Sahara, a sight so beautiful that words cannot describe it.  Afterward, you will have dinner with the Tuaregs, followed by the tribal Rokba Tagmount Dance.  You will spend the night camping on the dunes.

Day 9: Erfoud – Tinghir
Only fifteen kilometers from Tinghir, you will find the highest, narrowest gorges in the region: the Todras.  You will then travel through the Dades valley, where you will find thousands of rose bushes acting as hedgerows to divide plots of land used for local produce.  Along the Dades River, thousands of majestic Kasbahs appear, timeless in their beauty.  You will visit a Berber home where you will experience Ahwash music and Megouna dance, followed by dinner and accommodations at the Hotel Bougafer in Tinghir. 

Day 10: Tinghir – Ouarzazate
You will depart Tinghir and journey through El Kelaa De Mgouna and Boumalne, exploring the Dades Valley as you continue onward to Ouarzazate.  Ouarzazate is defined by one large Oasis that intercepts the flow of water between the Dades, the Draa valleys, and the majestic High Atlases.  Dinner and accommodations will be provided in the Belere Hotel, followed by a visit to a local home where you will enjoy a night of tribal music with Howara dancers.

Day 11: Ouarzazate – Marrakech
You will depart in the morning for Marrakech, traveling via Taddart and the Tizin’Tishka Pass.  The Pass, at an elevation of 11,000 feet, divides the mountains into two totally different aspects.  The first side acts as a shield, protecting the hinterland from the Sahara’s harsh, dry climate.  The second side is soft and evergreen, collecting moisture brought by the Gherbi winds from the Atlantic Ocean.  You will arrive in Marrakech, a pleasure city where Southern tribesmen and Berber villagers bring their goods, spend their money, and find entertainment.  For tourists, Marrakech is perpetually fascinating, sitting majestically before the soaring Atlas Mountains.  You will have lunch at your hotel, followed by a visit to the bustling Jemaa El Fna Square.  Afterward, you will visit a local home, where you will enjoy
 dinner, the local Kekka music, and the famous Gnawa music and dancing. 

Day 12: Marrakech
You will devote your morning to discovering the many historical sites that Marrakech has to offer, followed by lunch at La Paix Restaurant, a French restaurant with an art deco theme.  You will have a farewell dinner at a Jewish restaurant in the Mellah, followed by festivities complete with Andalusian and Sepherdic music.  Accommodations will be provided at the Atlas Hotel.

Day 13: Marrakech – Casablanca – New York
In the morning, you will leave your hotel for Marrakech Airport, where you will catch a transfer flight to Casablanca.  There, you will board your plane for the transatlantic flight back to New York.

Moroccan Music featured in this Tour

THE AHWASH
The dance comes from the High Atlas valleys in the Ouarzazate area. A circle of women in multicolored robes stands motionless. In the center, men sit around a fire, each of them with a "bendir" (a circular wooden frame with a hide stretched over it). A piercing cry breaks the silence. It is a shout more than a song. All the drums beat. The song of the men begins, mounting skyward. The women reply. Shoulder to shoulder, they sway rhythmically and slowly. The rhythm gets faster and faster until the finale.

THE ROUAIS
Set to very ancient music, in which is easy to perceive Middle Eastern accents, this dance is like a ballet.
The orchestra comprises a one-stringed fiddle, or "rbab soussi", and a certain number of "guembris" which are small mandolins with three strings sometimes made with a turtle shell. The rhythm is provided by a beater who strikes a piece of cast iron lying on the ground. The dancers add to the music with small copper cymbals attached to their fingers. All the dancers wear city dress: a colored "kaftan", a muslin "dfina", an embroidered silk belt, a cord decorated with spangles woven around the head. The dance is graceful and comprises several steps. Couplets alternate with the step to make an uncommonly delicate spectacle.


THE TISSINT
South of Agadir, men and women, entirely garbed in indigo-blue, perform a dance which resembles a religious rite.
Perhaps it is an ancient rite. The dagger dance is clearly symbolic. It is part of marriage ceremonies. Men and women dance to a rhythm that becomes more rapid. A young girl and boy leave the circle to do a duet. The boy holds a dagger at arm's length at the end of a cord. He spins about, making circles around the girl, withdraws and comes nearer, until they are face to face. Advancing towards each other with short steps, the boy raises his arms to place the dagger around the young girl's neck as she continues to dance. Slowly the boy falls to his knees in front of her. The song continues.


THE TASKIOUINE
No doubt a warrior's dance, since women do not take part. Wearing white tunics and turbans, with powder- horns on their shoulders, the dancers keep time to the accompaniment of earthware tambourines covered with skins. They dance shoulder to shoulder or in indian file. The body is shaken rhythmically and stopped suddenly with perfectly- timed stamping of the feet. It is a frank, powerful and virile dance without any mannerism or any equivocal gestures. Although athletic, it is nevertheless aesthetic.

THE GNAOUAS
African in origin, the Gnaoua dance belongs to brotherhood music-lore. The tumblers of the jemaa El Fna in Marrakech have transformed it into an entertainment. The instruments are as primitive as ever: large drums and wrought iron castanets form the orchestra. Cowrie shells and glass beads are worn as ornaments that recall the dance's origin and its magical or religious aspect. Some of the dancers perform leaps worthy of the best acrobats. They manage to jump high in the air without missing a beat of the rhythm. It is a show with great dramatic intensity.

THE AIT ATTA
This dance resembles somewhat the Ahwash of Kelaa M'Gouna. A row of women in festive dress faces a row of men. All the gestures of the dancers express gaiety and enthusiasm. The dance marks the end of work in the fields, when the harvest is in and when the winter cold of the mountain regions gives way to the season of relaxation.

THE AIT BODAR
Another warrior dance performed only by men. Wearing white "gandoras", they link arms as if welded to each other and chant their song during a continuous backwards and forwards movement. The dance appears to symbolize the indivisible unity that should link the warrior of the tribe in the face of the enemy. The men form an impenetrable barrier: they are as one man, one will be animated by a single rhythm.

THE AIT BOUGUEMAZ
The central figure wears a different costume to the rest of the troupe. He has a pointed bonnet covered with a strip of white muslin and plays a double flute. He is the only professional in the troupe and produces a nasal buzzing with his instrument which has a striking effect while the men and women of the village turn in a circle. The dance is at times light, composed of slides and little steps, or more dynamic when the performers stamp hard on the ground. It is an abstract dance by the mountain folk but it has the virility also of warrior dances. Poems are recited.

OULMES AND KHENIFRA
The "Ahidous" of the Middle Atlas is a visual enchantment performed in its traditional purity by men and women dancers of the Oulmes and Khenifra areas. Most of the girls are very young and very pretty. The costume, strongly influenced by urban dress is in pale colors. The men and women form a large circle and rock to the rhythm of "bendir" drums. They do simple steps, advance and withdraw. The gestures are discreet, full of dignity and modesty. Poems are recited.

THE AIT HADDIDOU
The Ait Haddidou live on the upper plateaux of the Assif Melloul in the High Atlas mountains at an altitude of 8,500 feet, and seem to have been subjected to no influences to upset the harmony of their patriarchal existence. The women wear "handiras", blue cloaks with white stripes. Married women and widows may wear "akidoud", a kind of henna, in their hair. Hefty necklaces of yellow amber beads and heavy silver jewels convey an impression of barbarian beauty. The men wear long burnouses and wrap their heads in impressive turbans. The "Ahidous" they perform is fascinating although static. We see here gestures which have resisted and triumphed over the passage of time, but whose significance is lost to us for ever.

THE HOUARA
These dancers come from Inezgane near Agadir. The troupe is composed of a group of men and one woman. The men begin the dance to a sprightly rhythm. One or two virtuosi leave the circle to execute solo dance. When the rhythm reaches its peak, the woman rushes to the center. There follows a whirling dance of great power. Uncommon physical strength is required to keep up the rhythm and do such elaborate steps. The dance is without doubt one of the most spectacular in Moroccan folklore and arouses the enthusiasm of the audience.

THE AHIDOUS
In the Middle Atlas Haidous dance singers and dancers form a large circle with the men and women standing alternately shoulder to shoulder. Sacred and secular influences are deeply linked in this ceremony. To the rhythm of tambourines, the men and women undulate and sing a joyful hymn.

THE GHIAYTAS
Warriors carry rifles dance to the tune of pipes and drums. It is not clear whether they are dancing to work up courage to face the enemy, or whether they are celebrating a victory. They do not sing but shout rumbling cries in cadence. Their rifles, like toys, are balanced on the head, spun at arms length, and they pretend to shoot with them at invisible enemies. Forming a circle and turning to the rhythm of a noisy orchestra, they aim their weapons at the ground, at a signal from their leader, fire off blank charges.

HAHA
The music is reduced to a solo seven-hole flute made out of a reed and elementary in design. The rhythm is supplied by hand-clapping and stamping of the feet on the ground to give a both powerful and enchanting effect. Dancing vigorously, the men produce an ensemble that is disciplined and virile.

THE GUEDRA
It would take too long to try to explain the significance of this dance from South Morocco in which the attitudes and movements have their origin in a very ancient symbolism. It is c~ represents some ritual ceremony whose origins are lost in the mists of time.
The women dancers kneel and are completely covered with a black veil. The steady rhythm like a beating heart brings out the hands that describe vivid and expressive motions. The head is revealed, with eyes closed, swaying like a pendulum. The rhythm is supplied by a "guedra" or cooking pot (an earthware drum covered with skin). It becomes pulsating as the dancers continue to speak their mysterious language. The singing of the spectators changes to brief and guttural cries. The dancer gradually casts off her veils and finally collapses in a heap.


THE OULAD SIDI AHMED OU MOUSSA
These acrobats belong to the wandering brotherhood of Sidi Ahmed Ou Moussa, the saint of Tazeroualt, a locality of the Anti Atlas mountains. Originally the young people of the area performed these exercises in preparation for their role as archers and marksmen. With the disappearance of the warriors, acrobatics became an end in themselves and a way of earning a living.
Many people from the Oulad Ahmed ou Moussa work in circuses in Europe and America. The colorful costumes are often embroidered and have not changed in centuries.


THE DEKKA (MARRAKECH)
The people who perform this rhythmic entertainment are not professionals. The strange orchestra composed of craftsmen and merchants of Marrakech is made up entirely of earthware drums of different dimensions. The ceremony starts with simple and rather solemn rhythms, and then the cadence of hand-clapping accelerates. High and lower pitched beats on the drums are cleverly orchestrated and the men start singing powerfully in chorus. The rhythm changes suddenly from time to time, but it is all amazingly well- regulated. The general impression is an explosion of joy, a sonorous enchantment that seems wild but is disciplined.

THE FANTASIA
There is one particularly stunning and exciting event that has taken its rightful place among the more noteworthy examples of traditional folklore in Morocco, those demonstrations popular customs of which Morocco is so famous and which stimulates tourists to come and to see for themselves; that even is the Fantasia.
This colorful display of horsemanship begins with a procession made up of women from the Zayaan tribe on horseback. Behind them come, their menfolks in groups according to their tribe and bearing each group's emblem. When this "lap of honor" finishes, it gives way to the real Fantasia, the Aid el Broud (Festival of Gunpowder) with its gun-fire and bursts of shots. The horsemen line up in close ranks, and no sooner has one wave of riders left than the next is ready to follow; the impression is that of surging waves of galloping hooves. The frenzied dash of horses is accompanied by the piercing cries of the riders and terse orders from their chief until the whole thing explodes in a blaze of gun-fire from their famous "moukhahla", the rifles that are so highly prized by gun collectors. And when the riding is over, then another kind of show begins on a platform that has been erected in front of the huge marquees.

No show of popular folklore is complete in Morocco without music and dance. The spectator is, needless to say, enthralled by the diversity and richness of costumes and music that stretch back in time for a thousand years.

Since September 1977, the National Festival of Fantasia has been held in Meknes

Aissawa :
(also Aïssâwa, Issâwa, Aïssaoua, Issaoua) is a religious and mystical brotherhood and order founded in Meknès, Morocco by Muhammad Ben Aïssâ (1465-1526), best known as the Chaykh Al-Kâmil (translated as the Perfect Sufi Master). The terms Aïssâwiyya (`Isâwiyya) and Aïssâwa (`Isâwa), came from the name of the founder, designate respectively the brotherhood (tariqa, litt. "way") and its disciples (fuqarâ, sing. to fakir, litt. "poor"). In the beginning clearly orthodox, the brotherhood of Aïssâwa became a very complex social phenomenon, in frontier of crowned and the layman, the private and public spaces and the erudite and popular culture.
The Aïssâwa are known for their spiritual music characterized by the use of the oboe ghaita (syn. mizmar, zurna), of collective songs of religious psalms accompanied by an orchestra of percussions using polyrhythm. Their complex ceremony, which use symbolic dances bringing the participants to ecstatic trance, take place in the private sphere during domestic rituals nights (lîla-s), and also in the public sphere during celebrations of national festivals (the moussem-s, which are also pilgrimages) and touristic (folk spectacles) or religious festivities (Ramadan, mawlid or birth of the Prophet) organized by the Moroccan and Algerian States.
In spite of their particularly fortifying music, the Aïssâwa don't profit from the same passion as the gnaoua near the Western public. However, like them - or like the Hamadcha with which they are usually confused - the Aïssâwa are always disparaged and placed at the bottom of the confreric hierarchy. Two principal reasons with that :

1st reason : there are in the ritual of the brotherhood of Aïssâwa some non-islamic elements, which are appeared progressively along the centuries, like exorcism and trance dances.
2nd reason: the Aïssâwî disciples were recruited traditionally among the poors populations of the Maghreb, or disadvantaged and marginalized people of the urban areas.
In the Maghreb crossed by a conservatism form of modernity (political islamism) and a serious economic crisis, it's easy to understand that this brotherhood crystallizes the tensions and contradictions of maghrebian societies because of the stigmatizing image that the majority opinion returns to her.

The Hmadcha
Alpmst the same but this Sufi Brotherhood is chiite in its practice.  Most complex rhythms and chants only Hmadcha can chant Hmadcha.  Very intense and vigorous way of dancing. 

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