Sanjib Bhattacharya, Manipuri classical dancer, choreographer, and teacher

“The oldest prayers were not spoken. They were danced.”

Artist Statement

For four decades, Sanjib Bhattacharya has danced the ras lila of Radha and Krishna to the deep, rolling cadence of the pung, the Vaishnavite tradition of India's northeast, carrying it from lamplit temple courtyards to concert stages in twenty countries. A disciple of Gurus Bipin Singh and Darshana Jhaveri, and twice honoured with the President of India's Award, he holds to an old idea: that a gesture, given fully, becomes an offering. Beyond the stage, more than 25,000 students and some seventy community programmes have learned the form from his hands. Today, from the Bay Area, he keeps it alive the only way a living art can be: not behind glass, but breathed into each new room, each new audience.

Read the full statement → What is Manipuri dance? → Notes from the studio →

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