People with or without ballet experience were invited to join the crowd at Opernplatz, where young and old lined up to beat the previous Guinness World Record from August 2008, when 989 people took a course in Cape Town, South Africa.
The group of 1,055 practised ballet for 30 minutes while an ensemble from the Hannover Staatsoper played along, a spokesperson said. But instead of the barre, or handrail typically used in ballet studios, the students performed their exercises with metal city event barriers.
The achievement, which kicked off the eighth annual week-long northern German dance event, called the Norddeutsches Tanztreffen, must still be approved by the Guinness World Records office.
The Staatsoper plans to host 17 performances from dance ensembles out of Braunschweig, Bremen, Bremerhaven, Greifswald, Kiel and Osnabrück over seven days. Dance events for children and the public are also on the schedule.
