THE SPIRAL & THE SPIDER

Sufi Sema meets Italian Tarantella

A LILA Retreat in Puglia, Italy

July 9–14, 2026 | Elāya, Puglia 

ABOUT THE RETREAT

In the ancient landscape of Puglia, where olive trees hold centuries of memory and the earth still pulses with the rhythms of healing traditions, two sacred lineages meet.

For centuries across the Mediterranean, communities gathered to heal through music, movement, and trance. In the Sufi tradition, the whirling of the dervish is a prayer — a dissolution of the self into the divine. 

In Southern Italy, the Tarantella was a rite of healing — women stomping the earth, driving out venom, reclaiming wholeness through ecstatic rhythm.

These traditions share the same root: the body as vessel, the drum as medicine, the spiral as the path home.

The Spiral & The Spider brings together world-renowned frame drummer and Italian Tarantella master Alessandra Belloni, Puglian multi-instrumentalist and medieval music keeper Giovannangelo De Gennaro, Sufi Whirling Dancer & Teacher Francesca Ferah & LILA Founders Omar Aena & Amira Radwan, for an immersive six-day retreat at Elaÿa — a regenerative sanctuary nestled among olive and pomegranate trees in the south of Italy.

Each day is woven around the ancient rhythms of body and soul:

• Morning ‘Muraqaba’ Sufi meditations to still the mind and open the heart 

• Tarantella drumming and dance workshops rooted in the living tradition of Southern Italy 

• Afternoon Sohbet — sacred conversation and reflection 

• Evening ceremonies weaving Sufi Sema Whirling and Tarantella into one living prayer

The retreat culminates in two peak ceremonies: a full Tarantella healing ritual on Day 4, and a live Sema ceremony with musicians on the final night — a spiral of sound and movement that will carry you home transformed.

YOUR GUIDES & MUSICIANS

ALESSANDRA BELLONI Frame Drum, Voice, Tarantella

With 45 years of fieldwork experience studying and preserving Southern Italian folk music, dance, drumming, theatre, and healing traditions, Alessandra Belloni is internationally renowned and voted by Modern Drummer & Drum Magazine as one of the greatest virtuoso percussionists in the world on the Italian tamburello frame drum.

Born in Rome, Belloni is the Artistic Director, Founder and Lead Performer of I Giullari di Piazza, an Italian Music, Theatre and Dance Ensemble who are Artists-in-Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City. Her stage productions Rhythm Is the Cure and Tarantella Spider Dance weave together music, tammuriata dance, drumming, drama, and fire dance, tracing the Pizzica Tarantata tradition from ancient Greek rituals to Italian folk healing. She is the author of Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna (Inner Traditions) and has designed a signature line of Italian tambourines for Remo, the world's largest drum company.

FRANCESCA FERAH Sufi Whirler and Lineage holder

Francesca Ferah is a Sufi researcher, dancer, and founder of Soul Circle, carrying the living tradition of Sema into the world. With Italian and Bosnian roots, her path led her to Istanbul in 2013, where she came under the guidance of Sufi Master Dr. Rahmi Oruç Güvenç who entrusted her with the mission of bringing Sema to the West. She fulfilled that trust in 2024 with the first Sema Gathering in Venice, continuing his caravan of music, movement, and remembrance. On this journey, Ferah will guide our Sufi whirling workshops, lead Dhikr meditation, and anchor the Sema ceremony.

GIOVANNANGELO DE GENNARO Viella, Flute, Voice, Cornamusa, Medieval Instruments

Giovannangelo De Gennaro is a specialist in medieval music, founder and director of the Ensemble Calixtinus, and has performed alongside giants of world music including Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Michel Godard, and Vinicio Capossela. In his musical journey he has also worked with musicians from Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Iran, and beyond — making him a rare bridge between the sacred music traditions of East and West. A dedicated pilgrim musician, he has walked the Camino de Santiago, the Via Francigena through Puglia, and pilgrimage routes stretching from Bari to Turkey and Armenia — always with his instruments on his back, offering music as spiritual offering and community healing. His presence at Elāya brings the voice of the ancient land itself into the retreat.

OMAR AENA & AMIRA RADWAN Founders of LILA | Sufi Path | Oud, Voice & Sacred Movement

Omar Aena and Amira Radwan are the founders of LILA — a sacred music organization dedicated to creating pathways to the divine through global devotional music and dance. As students of the Sufi path and practitioners of Sema whirling, their work is rooted in the living transmission of sacred tradition, approached with reverence, curiosity, and devotion. At Elāya, they will guide the daily Muraqaba meditations, lead Sohbet, and anchor the Sema ceremonies — holding the thread that weaves the entire retreat into one coherent prayer.

YOUR SANCTUARY — ELAŸA

"A home and sanctuary located in Puglia, in the South of Italy. A region filled with story & memory, an ancient landscape filled with olive and pomegranate trees... Here we restore our relationship to all that is, human and more-than-human, visible and invisible."

Elāya is a regenerative land project devoted to the healing and ritual arts — holding the prayer of restoring a new version of the ancient healing temples of the Mediterranean, places where one would pilgrimage to find refuge, tend to body, heart and spirit, and realign to purpose.

PRICING

All-inclusive: accommodation + daily brunch & dinner

Room Type

Price per person

Double room (either one king size bed or two twin beds)

$2,100

Triple room

$1,800

Quad room

$1,600

Space is intentionally limited to ensure an intimate, immersive experience.

We gather, set intentions, and open the circle together.

• Afternoon: Arrival & settling in

• 6:00 PM: Welcome dinner — gathering around the table in true Mediterranean fashion

• 8:00 PM: Opening ceremony — setting intentions, introducing the lineages, first circle

Through meditation, whirling, and Dhikr, we begin to turn inward.

• 8:00 AM: Muraqaba — Guided Sufi meditation

• 10:00 AM: Sufi Whirling Workshop with Francesca

• 12:00 PM: Brunch

• 3:00 PM: Dhikr with Francesca

• 5:00 PM: Free time / rest / land

• 7PM: Dinner

• 9:00 PM: Meditation with Sufi Music with Francesca

The practice deepens and culminates in a full Sema ceremony at night.

• 8:00 AM: Muraqaba

• 10:00 AM: Sufi Whirling Workshop with Francesca

• 12:00 PM: Brunch

• 3:00 PM: Go Offsite

• 5:30 PM: Free time

• 7PM: Dinner

• 9:00 PM: Sema Ceremony

We meet the Tarantella — its drums, its roots, and the trance it carries.

• 8:00 AM: Muraqaba

• 10:00 AM: Intro to Tarantella Dance

• 12:00 PM: Brunch

• 3:00 PM: Tarantella Drumming

• 7PM: Dinner

• 9:00 PM: Restful evening

Two ancient healing traditions converge in one transformative night.

• 8:00 AM: Muraqaba

• 10:00 AM: Tarantella Drumming + Dance

• 12:00 PM: Brunch

• 3:00 PM: Free time

• 5:00 PM: Tarantella Healing Ceremony — a full ritual in the tradition of the Pizzica Tarantata, led by Alessandra Belloni and Giovannangelo De Gennaro

• 7PM: Dinner

• 9:00 PM: Combined Tarantella + Sema Ceremony

We close the container, carry the light and return to our lives.

• 8:00 AM: Final Muraqaba

• 9:30 AM: Closing circle & farewell breakfast

• Departures throughout the day