Manipuri (Chhabi Bilas, Lasa Bilas)

Suppress the "Official References & Syllabi" subsection when genre_category = "Global Traditions" (or when the genre is not one of the four competitive ballroom genres). For Manipuri specifically, replace with: Sangeet Natak Akademi (sangeetnatak.gov.in), Centre for Cultural Resources and Training Manipuri overview (ccrtindia.gov.in/manipuri-dance/), Britannica Manipuri (britannica.com/art/manipuri), Wikipedia Manipuri dance (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipuri_dance).

Manipuri (Jagoi), the classical dance of the northeastern Indian state of Manipur, is among India's recognized classical dance forms and is unusual for how completely dance, music and devotion are fused. Its deepest layer is pre-Vaishnava: the ancient Meitei ritual Lai Haraoba ('pleasing of the gods'), a festival of cosmogonic song and dance that supplied much of the movement vocabulary. Vaishnavism entered Manipur through the surrounding region and was adopted at the royal court, with the Meitei kings embracing Krishna devotion. The decisive figure was Maharaja Rajarshi Bhagyachandra (Ching-Thang Khomba, c. 1759–1798), who documented and codified the dance, is credited with the Ras Lila repertoire and the design of the women's Kumil/Potloi costume (said to have come to him in a dream), and to whom the treatise Govinda Sangeet Lila Vilasa is attributed. This launched the classical form's golden age.

Culturally, Manipuri is inseparable from Krishna bhakti and is performed as an act of worship in temples (notably the Govindaji temple in Imphal), courtyards and festival grounds rather than purely as spectacle. Its ritual singing–drumming–dancing tradition, Nata Sankirtana, was inscribed by UNESCO on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013; Sankirtana, together with Lai Haraoba and the Ras Lila, forms the backbone of the classical style.

In character the dance is soft, lyrical and inward. Technique divides into the delicate Lasya (for Radha and the gopis) and the more vigorous Tandava (associated with Krishna and with the male drum dances). The signature quality is a continuous, rounded, wave-like flow — 'like the waves of an ocean' — with the basic gliding movement called chali (chari), veiled faces, downcast restrained abhinaya, and little of the sharp geometry or foot-stamping seen in other Indian classical forms; feet are placed softly and there are no ankle bells. The women's stiff, richly embroidered barrel skirt (kumil/potloi) with a translucent veil (koktombi/meikhumbi) shapes the visual identity. Counterbalancing this gentleness are the athletic male forms Pung Cholom, in which the dancer plays the barrel drum while leaping and spinning, and Kartal Cholom, danced with cymbals — often performed as a prelude to the Ras Lila.

Musically it is driven by the pung and mridanga drums and kartal cymbals within the Manipuri Sankirtana tradition, supported by vocals and melody instruments (pena, esraj, flute, harmonium), and structured by tala cycles rather than fixed meter.

The core repertoire is the Ras Lila, whose five principal forms are Maha Ras (Kartik full moon), Kunja Ras (Ashwin, autumn), Vasanta/Basanta Ras (Chaitra/spring, around Holi), Nitya Ras (performable on any night) and Diba Ras (a daytime Ras) — Bhagyachandra himself is credited with composing Maha, Kunja and Vasanta Ras. Alongside the Ras and Pareng dances, the tradition includes lyrical Bilas repertoire pieces such as Chhabi Bilas and Lasa (Lasya) Bilas. In the modern era the form was revived and brought to national and international stages above all by Guru Bipin Singh, the leading authority on Manipuri technique, together with his disciples the Jhaveri sisters — Nayana, Suverna, Ranjana and Darshana Jhaveri — whose work was central to establishing Manipuri as a concert classical dance.