HYDERABAD: The more than a daylong dance marathon came to a teary end at Ravindra Bharathi at about seven past ten, when the efforts of 125 dancers from different parts of India finally paid off, giving them a shot at entering the Guinness Book of World Record. The Rabindra Nrityotsav, held on February 1 and 2, recorded 26 hours and 34 minutes of non-stop dance along with live music. The event saw peformances on four famous Rabindranath Tagor e ballets: Chitrangada, Chandalika, Shyama and Bhanu Singher Padavali, on his popular songs like Hridaya Mandrila and Basanti Bhubanamohini, and also 150 famous compositions of his.
While no officials from the Guinness Records were present at the venue, a tape of the feat is being sent to them. Organisers hope that after analysis, the certificated will be awarded to the team. However, they will have to wait for about 45 days to hear from the Guinness officials.
Two professors, S Murali Babu, a dance professor from Banaras Hindu University, and P Sai Kumar, head of department, fine arts, Andhra University were the main witnesses to the event. “The whole performance went on smoothly, without any glitches and we recorded the time till 26 hours and 34 minutes.” Sonali Acharjee, director of Sonali Academy of Fine Arts said she was elated after having achieved a part of her dream.
“I am so excited that we finally put up the show. And I wouldn’t say it was an easy task. We had to work a lot to put together all the 150 songs, 125 artists and co-ordinate the music. Everybody worked so much on this, I am glad we could achieve more than 25 hours we aimed for.” She furtehr added, “Being in Hyderabad for 10-years now, I have blended into this city’s culture.
I am grateful for the government for letting us do this.
And I am sure, I will also fulfill my dream of setting up a small Shantiniketan in Hyderabad.” Sonali’s guruji was equally excited and teary-eyed. “We have been to so many places all over the country, but Hyderabadi audience have been the best yet. The amount of respect and support we received from the people here and also from the government, just kept us moving towards our goal.” Beside themselves with delight were the dancers who came from all over the world.
Lelan, a contemporary dancer from France, said, “This was amazing. We were feeling the nerve a little by midnight, but we got up and motivated ourselves to finish it.” Agreeing with her was another dancer from Kolkata, Buddhi Edirisinghe, who performed on Hridaya Mandrila. “Our sub-group had performances at midnight, early morning and at noon. It was so difficult to keep up the energy level. The musicians also had a tough time, but finally we pulled it off with every member contributing immensely. Backstage management was crazy. Especially, the makeup guys. Costumes and details were essential and had to be accurate, as they had to suit the dance and mood of the song.” Rabindra Nrityotsav was organised by the Sonali Academy of Fine Arts in collaboration with the AP State Cultural Council, Department of Culture and Shilparamam and South Zone Cultural Centre in Nagpur and Thanjore.
The Governor of Tamil Nadu and former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Konijeti Rosaiah along with T Subbarami Reddy were present for the valedictory function.