Kuchipudi dancers in California set World Record

Dancers in Cupertino will be forever memorialized in a book that honors loud burps, long fingernails and large groups of breastfeeding mothers.

"We are in the history books," Anand Kuchibhotla said today, after his group, Silicon Andhra organized a dancing feat that earned a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Saturday, 380 కూచిపుడి("kuchipudi") dancers set a world record for being the largest group of Kuchipudi dancers performing continually for more than 5 minutes on a flat stage. They danced for 8 1/2 minutes.

Guinness adjudicator Danny Girton oversaw the event, and handed a certificate to Kuchibhotla, a 46-year-old Internet startup vice president who grew up with kuchipudi dancing in his home state of Andhra Pradesh and came up with the idea.

"When he announced that we met all the standards, 2,000 people in the audience gave a standing ovation. They were screaming and saying 'Wooooooooo.' It was unbelievable," Kuchibhotla said.

Pronounced Koo-chee-poo-dee, the dance is about 1,000 years old, born in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh after a village by the same name. Dancers often represent Hindu gods, and act out stories for their audiences.

Dancers flew in from Russia, India, Singaore, Germany, England, Canada, and came from all over the United States. They flocked to Cupertino not only to set a world record but for the world's first international three-day kuchipudi convention, organized by Kuchibhotla's group, Silicon Andhra.

Kuchibhotla said that anyone is invited to try to beat the Cupertino dancing numbers, but he's warned, that he believes Guinness will have a new entry at the next Kuchipudi convention planned December 2010 in India.
"That's when we're going to break the new record we just set," he said.

Courtesy: Mercury News

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