Assam: Over 11,000 dancers, musicians perform Bihu dance and create 2 world records

GUWAHATI: A total of 11,304 dancers and musicians performed Assam’s Bihu dance at a stadium in Guwahati on Thursday to create two world records and take the traditional dance form to the world stage.

According to media reports, more than 7,000 dancers, most of them girls, and over 3,000 ‘dhol’ drummers and other musicians who have been selected from all districts in the state and trained over the past few weeks, performed for 15 minutes at the Sarusajai Stadium.

This was followed by a separate performance comprising drummers and other musicians. The performers tried to create world records in two categories—largest Bihu dance performance and largest performance by folk musicians that included traditional instruments like ‘dhol’, ‘pepa’, ‘gogona’ and ‘toka’.

Bihu dance is a traditional folk-dance popular across Assam and especially performed during Bohag Bihu or Rongali Bihu, the spring festival that heralds the Assamese New Year in mid-April.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Today we have been able to create two world records. Like today, on Friday also 11,000 dancers and musicians will perform Bihu in front of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and start our journey of conquering the world stage.”

Prior to the dance performance, official adjudicator of Guinness World Records, Rishi Nath, informed that the previous largest gathering of Bihu dancers at one place was 500. In October 2015, 9,892 Nati dancers from Kullu in Himanchal Pradesh had entered the Guinness World Records for the largest gathering of performers of that folk dance form.