Malika Anderson serves as a senior teacher and center leader of the Mevlevi Order of America, facilitating classes in the work of Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. She is one of few women authorized to preside over the sema ceremony, the great whirling dance. Malika began studying turning in 1980 with Postneshin Jelaluddin Loras, the son of Sulieman Dede, Sheikh of Konya, Turkey. She was initiated to teach the turn in 1994. She has had the honor of participating in ceremonies of sema and zikr in Rumi’s tomb in Konya, and other places in the world.