Freestyle relay dance marathon
The record for the longest freestyle relay dance marathon was set by the Rotaract Club of SIMCA of Pune, Maharashtra, wherein 80 students in 10 teams of different age groups gathered together and danced for 16 hours.
The world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on, said Michael Jackson, one of the greatest artists ever born on this planet. Dance is another form of happiness. According to the famous American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist, Maya Angelou, “Everything in the universe has rhythm. Everything dances.” With these themes in mind, the Rotaract Club of SIMCA from Pune, Maharashtra, organised a freestyle relay dance marathon on June 3, 2023, and established a record for the ‘longest freestyle relay dance marathon’ of 16 hours duration.
A total of 80 participants, most of them students of 18 to 30 years of age, gathered together at the Sinhgad Institute of Management and Computer Application (SIMCA), Pune, and danced nonstop for 16 hours from 6 am to 10 pm. There were 10 teams of different age groups. The fun-filled freestyle dance activity helped the Rotaract Club of SIMCA to get a memorable mention on the prestigious pages of the India Book of Records (IBR). It is worth mentioning that freestyle is a form of dancing in which there are no particular steps or movements to follow.
Kunal Singh Chauhan, Charter President of the Rotaract Club of SIMCA, said, “The idea behind the Dance Carnival was to help the underprivileged section of the society. We chose the day of June 3, 2023, for this dance marathon activity. We made all the necessary arrangements to make the event memorable. A DJ continuously played from 6 am to 10 pm to keep the dancers’ tempo high. The rhythmic music created an entertaining environment which motivated the participants to pump in more and more energy into their footsteps and body movements.”
Ashok Adak, the India Book of Records adjudicator, was also present at the venue to verify the claim and announce the record at the end of the event. He presented the IBR certificate and the medal to Kunal Singh Chauhan and other members of the organising team. With the announcement of making the record, extreme joy was visible on the faces of the dancers and the audience as well. It was truly a memorable evening at the SIMCA campus.
On asking, how the idea of a dance marathon struck, Chauhan said, “I wanted to break my previous record of the longest dance marathon. This prompted me to hold another freestyle relay dance marathon. The Rotaract Club is part of the Sinhgad Institute of Management and Computer Application (SIMCA), hence we did the activity. It has also been the Best Rotaract Club in Rotary District 3030.”
The Sinhgad Institute of Management and Computer Application (SIMCA), founded in 2004, is a part of the Sinhgad Technical Education Society (STES) founded in 1993 by Prof M N Navale. More than 40,000 students have been studying in various institutions run under this educational society.