BIOGRAPHY
Sohini Ray, the world's leading master-artiste of Manipuri dance was initiated into her dance form by the legendary maestro Guru Bipin Singh at the age of seven when she was admitted to Manipuri Nartanalaya, Kolkata.
She received over twenty-five 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 major festivals and venues in the world. As a solo artiste and also leading her own dance company Manipuri Dance Visions Ensemble she has traveled the world as her performances have included the inaugural ceremony of South-Asia Festival, New York University, American College Dance Festival, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, 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, Pasadena Dance Festival, Pasadena, City Heights Dance Festival, San Diego, World Festival of Sacred Music, Los Angeles, Kalanidhi Dance Festival, Toronto, Canada, Krishna Festival, Thunder Bay, Canada, Divertimenti series, Cambridge University, UK, India festival, Berlin, Indian Dance festival, Nehru Centre, London, and Lodz Art Center, Lodz, Poland. She is a solo artist (Grade B) in Doordarsan, the Indian Television and her performances in India has included Ganga Utsav, Benaras Kal-ke-Kalakar Sangeet Sammelan, Mumbai, Swami Haridas Sangeet Sammelan, Mumbai, Sharadotsav, Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal, National Centre for Performing Arts, Mumbai, Bharat Bhavan, Mumbai, India Habitat Centre, new Delhi, Epicenter, Gurgaon, Natarani theatre, Ahmedabad, Bharath Nrityotsav, Visakhapatnam, Devadasi Festival, Bhubaneswar and the prestigious State Kala Academy Solo Dance Festival in Imphal, Manipur.
Her major choreographic works include "Secrets of the heart", "Ima" "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 "Gita-Govinda" and the pioneering multimedia production in Manipuri dance, "Bhaktirasgi mangal-khonjel".
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) doing specialized academic research on Manipuri language and culture from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2010 she became the first dance researcher in the world ever to win the prestigious J. B. Donne prize from Royal Anthropological Institute, UK for her scholarly work on Manipuri dance. The same year the film version of her multimedia production "Sounds and Lights of Devotion" was selected finalist for the Margaret Mead award given by the Society of Applied anthropology, American Anthropological Association for successfully establishing dance as a practice of anthropology.
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), and has been a two time recipient of the Artist Resource Completion (ARC) grant from Center for Cultural Innovation (CCI) formerly administered by the Durfee foundation. Later, she received the Devadasi National Award from Devadasi Ntritya Mandir, Odisha, (2013) India and the Guru Bipin Singh memorial Award from Guru Bipin Singh Association India and Abroad (2014).
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 her solo "Pung-Cholom" received a third nomination for the Lestor Horton award (2011)