BIOGRAPHY
Sohini Ray was initiated into Manipuri Dance by the legendary maestro Guru Bipin Singh at the age of seven when she was admitted to Manipuri Nartanalaya, Kolkata, and is a versatile master-artiste of Guru Bipin Singh’s gharana (school) of Manipuri dance today. She received over twentyfive years of training in Dance and Pung (Manipuri drums) with teachers like Darshana Jhaveri and Kalavati Devi, and has studied Thang-Ta (Manipuri martial arts) under Guru Sinam Devabrata in Hula Sindamsang, Manipur. She started performing with the Jhaveri Sisters as a child artiste in 1979 and then continued to be a senior member of their troupe performing in the major festivals in India including Ganga Utsav, Benaras Kal-ke-Kalakar Sangeet Sammelan, Mumbai, Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan, Mumbai, Shardotsav, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal and the prestigious State Kala Academy Solo Dance Festival in Imphal, Manipur.
She is a solo artist (Grade B) in Doordarsan, the Indian Television. Her performances in North America have included the inaugural ceremony of South-Asia Festival, New York University, American College Dance Festival, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, World Fest, UCLA, film sequence of the opera "Mathis der Maler" directed by Peter Sellars, the Los Angeles Women's Theater festival, the opening night of Dance Kaliedoscope, Los Angeles, Kalanidhi Dance Festival, Toronto, Canada, Pasadena Dance Festival, Pasadena, City Heights Dance Festival, San Diego and World Festival of Sacred Music, Los Angeles.
Her major choreographic works include ‘Secrets of the heart’, ‘Self’ in collaboration with Korean choreographer Senhea Ha and Manipuri dance parts of ‘Krishnabhakti’ and ‘Utsav’. She has directed several productions including “Harao-kummei”, “Krishnagi wari” and “Bhaktirasgi magal-khonjel”, the pioneering multimedia production in Manipuri dance and “Gita-Govinda”.
She has received the National Scholarship in Manipuri Dance from the Government of India (1982-'86), First prize in the Music and Dance Festival of the West Bengal State Music Academy (1988), Shringar Mani award in the Kal-ke-kalakar Sangeet Sammelan, Mumbai (1988) and the title of Nartan Acharya from Manipuri Nartanalaya (1999). She received her M.A. in Dance (1995) Ph.D. in Anthropology (2000) from the University of California, Los Angeles.
She has taught Manipuri Dance in New York University and University of California, Los Angeles and started her own institution ‘Manipuri Dance Visions’ based in Los Angeles in 2005. She has since received the Elaine Weissman Los Angeles Treasures Award (2007), the Traditional Arts Development grant (2009) from Alliance for California’s Traditional Arts (ACTA). Her production ‘Harao-Kummei : Joyful Celebrations in Manipuri Dance’ won a nomination for the Lestor Horton Award (2007) given by the Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles. In the next year her production ‘Gita Govinda’ won the Lestor Horton Award (2008) and was selected as ‘Critic’s pick’ in Los Angeles Weekly, and subsequently performed in a sold-out house in Fountain Theatre, Hollywood as a part of the World Festival of Sacred Music