Dancer Nicole McLaren puts her fans in a record-breaking spin in Switzerland

Nicole McLaren from Zurich in Switzerland is an internationally touring dance teacher and performer who is best known for being an advocate of the art of Belly Dancing. But she has also honed many other dance art forms, including the art of non-stop spinning in a style that many of us would have tried as kids, and ended up on the floor very dizzy indeed!

‘Whirling’ as is the name given to this traditional dance art form that originates from middle eastern culture is an art form that involves simply spinning to the rhythm of music, and remaining on one’s own axis. It’s a visually stunning thing to watch live, and it is something that is said to take lots of practice to be able to master to the levels that Nicole has with her work.

She can even continue spinning upto four hours at a time, spinning round and round on one’s own axis continuously without getting dizzy or falling like most mere mortals would whilst spinning for such long durations.

As you can see in some of the video highlights above, Nicole has proved her status in the art form by setting a brand new, and very unique world record for ‘the most continuous spinning rotations in 1 hour’.

She told us:

“This is an achievement I am very proud of and I hope it attracts more people around the world to learn about the dance art form known as ‘Whirling’. The old record for a female dancer was previously set at 2,191 rotations, and achieved by a great dancer in the UK called Tara Oakley. I also beat the current male world record which was set at 2,905 as I achieved a total of 3,552 whirls around my axis in 60 minutes.”

This attempt took place at the Centre of Oriental Dance (Zeot) in Zurich, Switzerland, which is one of the largest belly dance schools in the region. Nicole teaches a range of middle eastern dance classes at the venue, including Belly Dancing.

She was accompanied on the day by the wonderful arabian music from the Oriental Gypsy band called ‘Ssassa‘ who also kept playing for an hour whilst Nicole made her incredible attempt!

Another very interesting achievement of Nicole’s is as a Black Belt in Karate… so not only can she put you in a spin whilst dancing, she can also kick ass! Now that’s our kind of lady!

e: