Precession in the Sufi whirling

[Iacopo]

At the "Festival dell'Oriente" my attention was also caught by a whirling Dervish. 
Sufi whirling is an antique form of active meditation of the Sufis the aim of which is to reach greater connection with Allah, (Wikipedia).
Nowadays is used also for to entertain tourists.
The whirler has a wide skirt which rides up while whirling; sometimes the skirt is tilted, while whirling, in which case the skirt precesses. At first I was not sure that this is a real precession, I thought that maybe it's just a random motion. 
Anyway I noticed that the direction of the precession is always opposite to that of the whirling, as it should be if this was a real precession, given the direction of the forces in play, so I have become convinced that this is indeed precession, (torque induced precession). The effect is evident when the skirt is very tilted.

Some samples:

https://youtu.be/emhIZuJ9S8Y

https://youtu.be/u-oB_LX3vrQ?list=PLhFvJCkywc1pSM9waGplS7MTwW-Enfn3X&t=263

https://youtu.be/2Bx7I4qYrG4?t=227

Here I explained how this particular case of precession works. The precession is caused by a component of the centrifugal force. The explanation is about the motion of a little weight attached to a spinning rod through a string, but the reasoning, the direction of the forces and the effects are the same.

https://youtu.be/mSmUpdKu6h0?t=1446

[Iacopo]

A spinning top could be made with some little weights attached to the top simulating the skirt of the Sufi.

The centrifugal forces, (red arrows), and the centripetal forces, (orange arrows), being misaligned, do not cancel each other out completely, but produce forces, (purple arrows), in the direction to tilt the ring of the weights horizontally.



But, because of the gyroscopic effect, these forces produce the tilting motion, (blue arrows), with a delay of 90°, (yellow arrows), in the direction of the spin.



So the precession happens in the opposite direction of the spin, like in the skirt of the Sufi whirlers.

[ta0]

Those are interesting observations, Iacopo.
I'm not ready to call it precession, but there is undoubtedly some relation. Being the skirts flexible, it could be much more complicated.

I guess Mike experiences a similar effect with his hand spinning cloth squares.

[the Earl of Whirl]

I guess I get some of that tilting effect but I cannot control it very well.  These spinning Sufis are amazing.  Then they can end with spinning their skirt/cloth in their hand!!!  Jim Neff has a giant cloth that size but I have yet to be able to get it going.

[Iacopo]

Being the skirts flexible, it could be much more complicated.

In fact I called it a particular case of precession.
I said "torque induced precession", thinking to the dynamics involved, even if obviously the tilting motion cannot be transmitted to the skirt through a torque, (since the skirt is flexible).  There are instead these tilting forces generated from the interaction between the centrifugal and the centripetal forces, as said.  Maybe "force induced precession" or "forced precession" could be more suitable..
   

[Iacopo]

These spinning Sufis are amazing. 

Also, I suppose that it must be difficult to whirl fast enough without having dizziness. Yes, they are admirable.