1,600 Bharathanatyam dancers create a new record in Puducherry

Bharathanatiyam students participating at the ‘Bharathanatiyam World Record event’ organised by Sangamam Global Academy in association with Tourism Department, on Beach Road in Puducherry on Friday. | Photo Credit: S.S. KUMAR

About 1,600 Bharatanatyam students performed a mass exposition of the ‘Ananda Thandavam’ in a world record bid to recreate the divine dance of bliss associated with Lord Shiva on the Beach Promenade on Friday.

The event hosted by the Sangamam Global Academy was supported by the Department of Tourism and the regional unit of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts.

Adjudicators of the Unique World Records later declared a world record for the show as it passed the criteria of Bharatanatyam technicalities, especially, having a minimum participation of 1,000 dancers and extending for a duration of at least four minutes.

The event was officially recorded to have featured 1,626 dancers and lasted about eight minutes.

A spokesman for Unique World Records said 56 stewards were deployed as observers. Sababbi Mangal, Yuktha (Chandigarh), and Rahman Basha of Unique audited the show. Chinnamannur A. Chitra, assistant professor, Music Department, Annamalai University, and Athishta Balan, both Guinness record holders, were special witnesses. Chief Minister N. Rangasamy and other dignitaries witnessed the spectacle.