PARSIPPANY — Bina Menon, founder and director of the Kalashri School of Arts in Parsippany, helped lead hundreds of dancers from across the United States and Canada in a Guinness World Records achievement celebrating one of Kerala’s traditional classical dance forms.
The record attempt took place August 8 at the Kalahari Resorts & Convention Center in Pocono Manor, Pennsylvania, during the 2026 FOKANA International Convention. The Federation of Kerala Associations in North America, known as FOKANA, organized Guinness World Records attempts for both Mohiniyattam and Chenda as part of the four-day convention.
Menon said the Mohiniyattam event was initially planned as a large performance before becoming a Guinness World Records classroom attempt. Organizers needed one instructor to lead the dancers, and Menon was selected to teach the group.
“It was supposed to be just a dance, and all of a sudden it became like a class,” Menon said. “They needed just one teacher to teach this whole class, and they picked me to do that from the whole of America and Canada.”
According to Menon, the previous threshold the group needed to exceed was 250 participants. More than 900 dancers were present for the attempt, although Guinness officials initially verified 786 participants after individual QR codes were scanned upon entry. Menon said organizers were working to document additional dancers whose scans did not properly register.
The performance brought dancers together in the traditional white-and-gold costumes associated with Mohiniyattam, a classical dance form originating in Kerala. Menon recalled that observers watching the event described the large group as looking like an “ocean of gold.”
The achievement also had a strong Parsippany presence. Menon said approximately 175 students from Kalashri School of Arts participated in the effort. The school, located at 1259 Route 46 in Parsippany, teaches Mohiniyattam, Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, and other forms of Indian dance.
For Menon, the event added another milestone to a career that began when she was a child. She said she has been dancing for approximately 62 years and teaching for 51 years. Kalashri School of Arts will enter its 35th year this September.
Menon said her first performance came in Chennai when she was about 3 years old. Decades later, her students have performed and competed around the world.
Kalashri students competed in Barcelona in 2013, where Menon said the school earned first place in an international dance competition. In 2023, a Kalashri team competed at the Dance Grand Prix Italia, earning first place in the folk category, Best Costume, and second place in the ethnic category. Contemporary reporting from the competition also noted special recognition for Menon’s choreography.
The school also has a connection to one of the biggest stages in entertainment. Kalashri students were selected through auditions to perform during the 2009 Academy Awards program connected to A.R. Rahman’s award-winning work on “Slumdog Millionaire,” according to the school.
Menon said accomplishments such as competitions and world records are important, but she views dance education as something broader than performances and awards.
When students first enter her classes, she said many have little familiarity with Indian classical dance beyond the Indian culture they may have encountered through popular music and Bollywood. Her goal is to preserve the discipline and structure of classical dance while making it understandable to younger generations growing up in the United States.
“It opens up something for them about their own culture and where they come from, their roots,” Menon said.
She said that discipline often stays with students long after they leave her classroom, with former students continuing to dance in college and other settings.
Menon also emphasized the work behind the record attempt. Practices were coordinated across a large geographic area, and dancers prepared for an event that ultimately brought together hundreds of performers.
“I sincerely, wholeheartedly do this,” Menon said. “I always say the process has to be good for a good result.”
The Mohiniyattam achievement was not the convention’s only record-setting effort. On the same day, hundreds of Chenda percussionists participated in a separate Guinness World Records performance. More than 500 artists took part in the synchronized Chendamelam performance, according to reports following the event.
Menon is now preparing Kalashri students for another major performance closer to home. She said the school plans to present a show featuring more than 100 dancers on October 25, with Parsippany expected to serve as the location.
The program will center on Mahakali and women’s power and will also incorporate the Mohiniyattam piece performed during the Guinness World Records event. Menon said students will take part in creating costumes and learning the cultural and artistic meaning behind the performances.
For Menon, those experiences remain central to why she continues teaching after more than five decades.
“You do your best,” she said. “Whatever is our best, we don’t know, so we just do our best.”
