Dancing into the Guinness pages

January 10 dawned with palpable excitement over Kolhapur and the entire city wore a traditional, festive atmosphere to witness and celebrate a remarkable feat – the creation of the Guinness World Record for performance by maximum number of classical dancers at a time! The event was Rotary Nritya Sanskarr hosted by Rotary District 3170 as part of their Rotary Days.

The unique programme saw 2,100 Bharathnatyam dancers, aged 5 to 40, perform gracefully for
12 minutes, at the Rajashri Shahu Maharaj Stadium on the evening of January 10. When the Guinness Adjudicator Mercie announced the news of the record, it indeed was a momentous, memorable occasion for each of the participants!

The dancers hailing from various parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Goa were trained for over three months by Tapasya Siddhi Kala Accademi, a dance school based at the city. Dance teacher Sanyogita Patil said that the dance was recorded on a CD and sent to the respective training schools in the various cities to ensure uniform performance. “The fact that we have danced our way into the pages of the coveted Guinness Book just makes the heart of each one of us swell with pride and joy,” she said.

The event served as the District’s celebration of Rotary Day and DG Ganesh Bhat said that with about 30,000 spectators witnessing the programme from the stands and thousands more from the comfort of their homes through the television, it was an excellent PR exercise for Rotary.  All expenses of the dancers such as their costumes, travel, accommodation and food were borne by the Rotary clubs.

Team Rotary News