COLOMBIA: Hundreds of Colombian dancers break world record for dancing salsa for over 13 hours

Record ID: 586060

  • Title: COLOMBIA: Hundreds of Colombian dancers break world record for dancing salsa for over 13 hours
  • Date: 29th September 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) ORGANISER CESAR MONROY, SAYING: "The world record of thirteen hours of salsa and tango dancing has really been a challenge, a real challenge because we had 200 dancers which is what was put on the conditions of the challenge. It was that there would be 200 dancers, that there would be two genres, salsa and tango, that it would be a minute between each
  • Embargoed: 14th October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Colombia
  • Country: Colombia
  • Topics: Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA4NAKW6SWV5YJEL4F0XG3SI21B
  • Story Text: In a tango and salsa extravaganza, 200 dancers from various Colombian dance companies took to a Bogota stage and danced for thirteen hours and eighteen minutes to create a new world record on Sunday (September 24).
    Top class dancers of all ages gathered at the Bogota theatre to complete the challenge, with dancers as young as eight years old performing alongside some of the country's most seasoned professionals.
    With sequins sparkling, hips swinging and veils fluttering, the dancers wowed the full house of spectators eager to be present at this novel event.
    The dance marathon was organized to create a new record and to pay tribute to all the dancers and directors who have honed these two distinct Latin American dance genres over the years, as dancer Claudia Viviana Acevedo explained.
    "This event we are doing is the record, with thirteen hours of tango and salsa. We danced all day from nine in the morning until ten at night. And as well as that, it's a tribute to the people we have worked with on tango and salsa," she explained.
    Colombia's Danzantes Industria Cultural (Cultural Industry Dancers), headed by Cesar Monroy, organised the event, allowing each group to occupy the stage for half an hour before being replaced by another group.
    As Monro explained, they set themselves the challenge with a number of self-imposed conditions.
    "The world record of thirteen hours of salsa and tango dancing has really been a challenge, a real challenge because we had 200 dancers which is what was put on the conditions of the challenge. It was that there would be 200 dancers, that there would be two genres, salsa and tango, that it would be a minute between each company. Every half hour a company entered the stage and there was a minute to change that company for another, in this case, a salsa company, and that is what we were at for thirteen hours," he explained.
    With six salsa companies and seven tango companies involved, thirteen hours of colour and music combined with some distinctively Latin rhythm and grace were assured. And with some 5,000 people turning up over the course of this day-long dance marathon, it was clear that, in Colombia at least, dancing is still a national passion.
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