Mizoram sets world record in traditional dance

AIZAWL - Nearly 11,000 tribal boys and girls in India’s northeastern state of Mizoram Friday danced their way into the Guinness Book of World Records by setting a record of the largest dance ensemble in the world.

A new Guinness world record was created with 10,780 dancers performing the bamboo dance for eight minutes in perfect rhythm,” a representative of the Guinness Book of World Records, Lucia Sinigagliesi, announced after the event.

“About 671 troupes comprising 10,736 dancers participated in the mass dance congregation at the Assam Rifles ground and its outskirts in the heart of the capital Aizawl city to demonstrate the world’s largest and longest dance ensemble,” Jim K. Chozah, Mizoram information and public relations director, told reporters.

The bamboo dance locally known as the Cheraw dance is the harbinger of the Chapchar Kut festival of the Mizos, which marks the end of winter and the advent of summer.

The dance symbolises the excellence, strength, skill and aspiration of the people of Mizoram, a state of just under 900,000 people.

Last year, the largest dance gathering was held at Cebu in the Philippines, where 7,700 people jived together.

Cheraw is the most colourful of Mizo dances. Dancers move by stepping alternately in and out from between and across a pair of horizontal bamboo poles, held on either side by people sitting face to face.

The bamboo poles produce a clicking sound that forms the rhythm of the dance.

“We are delighted indeed to create history,” Mizoram Art and Culture Minister P.C. Zoramsangliana told IANS.

Sinigagliesi later handed over a certificate to the minister for having set the new record.

Thousands of people from across the hilly state congregated into the Assam Rifles ground and adjoining 3 km neighbourhood to observe the largest cultural demonstration.

“Today is a historic day for Mizoram as our traditional bamboo dance has crossed frontiers to hit international headlines,” Tetei, a government official, said.