Manipuri dance

• What we know today of Manipuri dance, one of many classical Indian dances, is thanks to Rabindranath Tagore. 
• In 1919, when he saw a performance of this dance in Sylhet (Bangladesh), he was so impressed that he invited the well-known exponent Guru Budhimantra Singh to Shantiniketan. 
• Later many other gurus came to teach this dance to Tagore’s students and also help him in choreographing many of his dance dramas.
•  Tagore made great efforts to bring the dance out of its place of origin, Manipur, in northeast India. 
• The cult of Radha and Krishna, particularly the ‘raslila’, is central to the theme of the dance. Unlike other classical dances, Manipuri dancers don’t wear ‘ghungroos’ or strike hard on the ground. 
• The movements are subtle and graceful. However, in the masculine tandava mode, the male dancer pirouettes in spirals in space or on knees on the ground.