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President among 65,000 who dance 'poco-poco' to welcome Asian Games
The event, staged to welcome the 2018 Asian Games, broke China's Guinness World Record for Largest Line Dance.
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President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo (second right) and Vice President Jusuf Kalla (second left) dance the 'poco-poco' at the National Monument in Central Jakarta on Aug. 5 to welcome the 2018 Asian Games. (Antara/Aprillio Akbar)
S
ome 65,000 people, including President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Vice President Jusuf Kalla, danced the poco-poco (pronounced pocho-pocho) to welcome the 18th Asian Games on Sunday in Central Jakarta.
The dance was also an attempt to break the official Guinness World Record for Largest Line Dance (multiple venues).
The participants filled the streets from the National Monument (Monas) to Hotel Indonesia Traffic Circle, which is about 3 kilometers.
Jokowi, Kalla and other top officials including Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister Puan Maharani led the dance at the main event in Monas square in the morning.
Preparations for the dance began as early as 1 a.m. for some dance groups.
“We gathered at the dance studio at about 1a.m.,” said one of the participants, Ecxha. “It was actually announced earlier in June and we’ve been practicing the dance these past two months.”
She said breaking the World Record was a matter of national pride. “We want to break the record to show-off to Malaysia, they think they own this dance, but in fact it came from North Sulawesi.”
Among the participants, there were a large number of schools involved in the execution of the successful record-breaking attempt.
Three 16-year-old schoolmates Ziana Naz Zahra, Khoirunnisaa Salsabila and Putri Amalia Kunaefi from state high school SMA 58 were among the thousands of students participating in the event.
“Each participating school was allowed to send a maximum of 100 people.” Ziana said. “We sent 98 students and two instructors.”
The last official record of the Largest Line Dance (multiple venues), was recorded in Beijing in 2016, with a recorded participation of about 50,085 people. (acr/evi)
