In Odisha, the biggest ever assembly of Odissi dancers from across the globe was held on Friday at the International Odissi Dance Festival at Bhubaneswar .The event started with a dance by 555 performers at the Kalinga Stadium and has earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Artistes from more than 35 countries including India performed complete repertoire of classical Odissi dance – Mangalacharan, Batu, Pallavi, Abhinaya and Mokshya – for 28 minutes for the record. The dance performance was choreographed by Guru Ratikanta Mohapatra.The largest number of dancers came from the USA , Russia and Japan . For the first time this year dancers from Israel , the Netherlands , Germany , Sweden and Brazil are participating in this global gathering.The eight-day festival is being jointly organised by the Tourism and Culture Department of Odisha, ORC and the US-based Indian Performing Arts Promotion (IPAP).