Guru Bipin Singha is reckoned as the pioneer of Manipuri Dance. He is one of the prominent names amongst them, who made the place of Manipuri dance on the world stage. With great artistic sense, Guru Bipin Singha created a fine mesh of popularity throughout the North-eastern part of the subcontinent including Bangladesh. The contribution of Guru Bipin Singha in Manipuri dance is rightly justified by addressing him as the "Father of Manipuri Dance and style".
Guru Bipin Singha was born on August 24, 1918 to a family intensely involved in Manipuri culture. His father Laikhomsana Singh was a poet and his mother Indubala Devi was a vocalist. His grandfather P. Tona Singh was a Manipuri Maiba (priest). Right from his childhood Guru Bipin Singha received rigorous and elaborate training in the art of Manipuri dancing from various experts of Manipur and its surrounding districts like Sylhet, Cachar, and Tripura. Guru Bipin Singha is a rare combination of a dancer, choreographer, scholar and a teacher. For more than the last 50 years he had dedicated himself to the task of exploring and illuminating the classical elements of Manipuri dancing in order to conserve, promote and propagate the art form in its faultless purity.
Guru Bipin Singha is best known for innovating dance compositions and choreography that had given him a fair place among the choreographers of Indian dance. He is the composer of various dance performances, emphasising each classical element in a creative way, bringing out its beauty to the fullest, thus keeping pace to its original form and spirit. Guru Bipin Singha gave a new path to dance dramas and choreographed them, adhering to the traditional framework. Guru Bipin Singha also did some solo pieces and re-choreographed them for stage performances, thereby making them some of the spectacular pieces of Manipuri dance. He is known to be the pioneer in introducing solo dance performances in the traditional Manipuri style.
Guru Bipin Singha had continually established a significant association between the available Vaishnavite and other Indian texts on dance, through studies and researches. The scholastic abilities of this personality had enabled him to classify, analyse, systematise and bring together the various aspects of Manipuri dance, and thus form fundamental and universal principles and disciplines to communicate effective training onto his students.
Guru Bipin Singh along with his well-known disciples Jhaveri sisters and Kalavati Devi founded Manipuri Nartanalaya in Mumbai, Kolkata and Manipur. The state of Manipur internationally known for Guru Bipin Singha`s scientific attitude and scholarly approach and creative minds have accredited his `school` of dancing as a significant `gharana` of Manipuri dance. In order to acknowledge and appreciate his contribution to the field of dance, Guru Bipin Singh was honoured with many prestigious awards among which National Sangeet Natak Academy awards given by Late Indira Gandhi, Nrityacharya by Maharaja of Manipur, Kalidas Samman Madhya Pradesh, Uday Shankar Fellowship Calcutta and Anamika Kala Sangam Awards Calcutta, stand significant.
Guru Bipin Singh`s teachings and the Manipuri dance style were popular not only in India, but in Bangladesh as well. Two of his direct students Sharmila Bandyopadhyay and Tamanna Rahman are presently carrying on the legacy of Guru Bipin Singh in Bangladesh and introducing the young generation of dancers the authentic Manipuri style.
