Reading about Manipuri Dance in books about Indian dance, especially those written pre-1990s, has always been quite entertaining to me. There is a distinct exoticised "othering" seen in statements like "the Meities, a people of slight build with slanting eyes...are a deeply sensitive and artistic race..." [8] and "The country abounds in myth and legend...since earliest times, the people have shown an innate love and a gift for expressing their emotional and religious fervour through dance and music." [2]. The dances are described in glowing but simplistic descriptions laden with pleasantries.
A refreshingly-different perspective on Manipuri dance is offered by Faubion Bowers in his 1953 book The Dance in India. Faubion had an interest in Asian dance and drama and was one of the early and well-known Asian Studies writers starting in the 1950s (and was instrumental in the preservation of Japanese Kabuki). In this excerpt Faubion departs from most other writers of his day and argues that "Manipuri dance" as it was known outside of Manipur at that time and as popularized relatively early by renaissance man Rabindranath Tagore was a complete misrepresentation, and of excited interest to this blog he also covers its popularity and misrepresentation in Indian cinema:
A refreshingly-different perspective on Manipuri dance is offered by Faubion Bowers in his 1953 book The Dance in India. Faubion had an interest in Asian dance and drama and was one of the early and well-known Asian Studies writers starting in the 1950s (and was instrumental in the preservation of Japanese Kabuki). In this excerpt Faubion departs from most other writers of his day and argues that "Manipuri dance" as it was known outside of Manipur at that time and as popularized relatively early by renaissance man Rabindranath Tagore was a complete misrepresentation, and of excited interest to this blog he also covers its popularity and misrepresentation in Indian cinema:
“[Rabindranath] Tagore hoped that by transplanting the dance from Manipur to India proper he would have the secret of regenerating dance throughout all India.... Shortly after his visit, Tagore installed a dance teacher from Manipur at Shantiniketan, an all-India school of arts in Bengal. Apparently Tagore was too definite about the use he wished to make of Manipuri dancing and too opinionated as to what he thought the art of dance should be in general. He selected bits and pieces of the teacher’s instruction and molded them to fit his own romantic dance-dramas. By simplifying the dance he made it possible for his students to be dancers and brought the art well within their reach. What became known as “Manipuri Dancing” was actually this Tagorean simplification and its latitude of interpretation. During this arid period of India’s recent dance history, this Manipuri-cum-Tagore style swept the country. People responded to its soft, flowing, unintellectual, and restful style. Mathematics and perfectionism in classical dancing had until then precluded the entry of amateurs into the dance field. Tagore’s Manipuri dancing filled a vacuum and answered the cry of amateurs.
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