Imphal, Jul 27 (PTI) Anthropologist and researcher Sohini Ray, who has been a Manipuri classical dancer for over five decades, felt that the art form has not received the fame and recognition it deserves.
In a telephonic conversation with PTI, Ray, who hails from West Bengal but speaks Manipuri fluently, blamed a lack of leadership in the art form, as compared to other classical dances of the country.
“Manipuri classical dance has not received the fame and recognition it requires and deserves. Sadly, I observe a lack of leadership in the art form as compared to other national classical dances.
“Along with this, verbal communication issues (of artistes) also hindered its propagation at the national and global levels. The Manipuri diaspora is very strong now, but somehow the classical dance has not been propagated as it should have been,” she said.
Still, students in Imphal are very eager to take this art form forward, and there is a lot of honesty in their efforts, Ray added.
“The uniqueness of Manipuri classical dance comes from the land itself. If you are to appreciate Manipuri dance, you have to be in Imphal Valley. The unique geography, environment, trees and bamboo groves have shaped the movements in a certain way and have made it rich,” she said.
Ray recalled how one of her students from Andhra Pradesh, during her visit to Manipur two years back, could instantly feel how unique the dance was while witnessing performances in the temples of Imphal.
Recalling her introduction to Manipuri classical dance, Ray said she started learning it at the age of five in a dance school in her hometown Kolkata.
“Two years later, my teacher in that school advised my mother to put me in my guru’s school in Manipuri Nartanalaya, Kolkata, where I started studying with the Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee, the Late Guru Bipin Singh,” she said.
Born in Kolkata in 1966 in a Bengali family, Ray not only trained under Guru Bipin Singh but travelled with renowned Manipuri dancers Jhaveri sisters across the country and started working as Singh’s research assistant from the age of 14.
“I visited Manipur for the first time in September, 1988 when I was 22 years old. I started doing my research on Manipur from 1991, when I was 24. My first project was a part of my M Sc dissertation paper in anthropology. It was on the relationship between society and dance in Manipur. This was the beginning of a very long journey, which is still continuing,” she said.
“I did not choose Manipuri dance consciously. I was too young to make any conscious choice. The art form chose me, and I feel fortunate that way,” Ray said.
Ray said she gave her first performance in Delhi in 1980 when she was studying in class 8, after which she travelled with the Jhaveri sisters across the country.
She moved to the United States in 1992 and taught Manipuri dance at the New York University and then the University of California, Los Angeles, where she did her MA in dance and then PhD in anthropology, focusing on Meitei Mayek (Meitei script).
“My first performance in New York was 1992. I have toured all of the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe since then,” she added.
Ray, who has taken both academic and practical dance classes in several American universities, said, “I started Manipuri Dance Visions in 2005 in the US. It was a collective of a few dancers who trained with me. Our unit did numerous performances of classical Manipuri dance.” “Our signature production ‘Gita Govinda’ won the prestigious Lestor Horton award in 2008 in Los Angeles. Later, I started to teach online Manipuri classical dance and also Lai Haraoba (another traditional dance form from Manipur) to students across India,” she added.
Ray said her guru, who was her greatest support, passed away in 2000.
Ray, who has been appointed a senior guru at Radha Madhob Cultural Institution in Imphal since March 2024, said the trust of her students at the institution and her own Manipuri Dance Visions are now her biggest sources of inspiration.
“My future plan is to strengthen my guru’s gharana in Imphal,” she said.
Her research on Manipuri dance won the prestigious J B Donne prize in anthropology of art from the Rayal Anthropological Institute, UK in 2009. PTI COR ACD
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