GURU BIPIN SINGH'S SCHOOL OF MANIPURI DANCE
Guru Bipin Singh studied the entire Manipuri performance tradition including dance, music, percussion, cymbals and Manipuri flute (toudri). In the traditional repertoire his gharana follows the ‘palace style’, i.e. the sequence and style as practiced in the royal temple.
His vision of imparting systematic training to students gave rise to an extensive teaching repertoire. He was the pioneer teacher in Manipuri dance to codify and categorize the entire movements repertoire of Manipuri dance and create movement series of teaching purposes. In the performance repertoire his outstanding contribution was the tandava (male style) repertoire. He combined highly athletic movements and the rich and complicated rhythmic pieces of the sankirtana genre (ensemble of drum dance and cymbal dances) and created a tandava (male style) movement repertoire to choreograph dances of the male characters of dance dramas and solos.
Guru Bipin Singh’s gharana was Manipuri dance is marked by its use of complicated rhythmic cycles and the athletic tandava repertoire. Guru Bipin Singh’s gharana is also known for its rich repertoire of solo dances of both tandava (masculine) and lasya (feminine) that have now become classics in the field. Even the lasya (feminine) repertoire is marked by richness in movements and rhythm patterns. However, the most radical move by this legendary master was teaching pung (percussion) to female students.
In the 1950s at a time when women where not allowed to touch pung while menstruating Guru Bipin singh taught his female students how to play the pung. A few selected students also studied pung cholom, the drum dance. The drum ensemble piece ‘mridang vadan’ where female percussionists play pung and display dance gesture has become a hallmark of the Guru Bipin Singh’s gharana of Manipuri dance.