1000 dancers' fete aims at Guinness

Tamil Nadu is making an attempt at setting a Guiness World Record out of the grand spectacle that was staged as part of the millennium celebrations of the Big Temple

THANJAVUR: 25/09/2010 SATURDAY_ .Padma Subramanyam and group of Bharatha Natyam dancer performing Bharathanatyama part of the Millenium celebrations of the big temple in Thanjavur on Saturday. Photo: M_SRINATH

It was a challenge to make everyone feel that there were 1,000 dancers on the floor. After all, the event could make it to the Guinness book of records and had to be verifiable.

K.S. Sudhakar of Swathi Soft Solutions and S.B.Khanthan, director, had to meet the organising challenge. Now that the event is over, they have filed an application for the mammoth dance event, marking the completion of 1000 years of Brahadeeswarar Temple at Thanjavur, for listing as a Guinness achievement.

Here’s how the organising part was done: technical crew of Swathi Soft Solutions arrived 48 hours in advance with 9 cameras, two Jimmy jib cranes and fitting accessories to capture the excitement of 1,000 Bharatha Natyam virtuosos and to feed live web casting through

>www.kalakendra.com and

>www.kutcheribuzz.com as also for release as DVD. Vantage camera positions had been marked based on the floor map and dancers positions meticulously drawn by Dr Padma Subrahmanyam. Mock camera drills were conducted till 2 am on the previous night by S.Jayakumar, the chief videographer and his crew.

The task of assembling 1,000 dancers belonging to various dance schools across the globe two hours before the schedule start right on their respective positions was handled by ABHAI, Brahan Natyanjali and Dr Padma Subrahmanyam.

Recorded webcast of the event is also available at www.kalakendra.com from 8 pm on September 27, 2010.