Celebrating the birth centenary of Manipuri dance Guru Bipin Singh, five prominent dance organisations, in association with Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA), organised a two-day dance festival at the National Theatre Hall of BSA in the capital.
The inaugural ceremony of the two-day dance festival was held on Friday evening where Whip Shahiduzzaman Sarkar, Indian dance critic Dr Sunil Kothari,  dance critic-writer Leela Venkataraman, director of BSA’s Dance and Recitation Department Sohrab Uddin and dance artiste Lubna Marium, among others, were present.
The five participating organisations are— Dhriti Nartanalaya founded by Warda Rihab, Bhabna (Samina Husain Prema), Kolpotoru (sister organization of Shadhona by Lubna Marium), Dhrumel (Sweety Das Chowdhury) and Nrityam Nrittya Shilan Kendra (Tamanna Rahman).
The programme on the first day began with the dance performances by the artistes of Kolpotoru and Dhrumel.  Eminent artistes Warda Rihab, Samina Husain Prema and Sweety Das presented dance performances at the event.
Later, Bimbavati Devi, daughter of Guru Bipin Singh, mesmerised the audience with her dance performance.
On the other hand, dance artistes from several Manipuri dance schools performed Manipuri dances on the second day of the festival yesterday at the same venue.
To note, Guru Bipin Singh the legendary teacher of Manipuri dance was born on August 23, 1918 in Singari village of Cachar district in Assam. His father Laikhomsana Singh was a maiba and mother Indubala Devi was a renowned singer.
In 1972, he founded Manipuri Nartanalaya in Kolkata with branches in Mumbai and Imphal and trained a new generation of Manipuri dancers, many of whom are the forebears of the field today. He was awarded the title of Hanjaba by the maharaja of Manipur, Sangit Natak Academy award in 1966, and The Sharangadev fellowship by Sur shringar Samsan, Kalidas samman by MP government and numerous others. At his death in January 2000 in Kolkata he was mourned by over 300 students worldwide with his obituaries were published in newspapers in Kolkata to California.