Manipuri Dance leading exponent Prof. Dr Sruti Bandopadhay
Prof. Dr Sruti Bandopadhay is an ideal combination of performer-scholar in the dance field of India.She is one of the leading exponents of Manipuri Dance dedicated to propagate Manipuri dances outside the boundaries of Manipur. Awarded the ‘Top’ Grade by National Television, she is trained under such famous personalities like Guru Bipin Singh, Kalavati Devi, Darshana Jhaveri, Ojha Babu Singh, Ojha Gourakisor Sharma, Prof. Jiten Singh and has performed in various national and international festivals for last 30 years. She is a recognized artist of Sangeet Natak Academy, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Eastern Zonal Cultural Center and other cultural institutions in India. She has choreographed a number of productions that have brought her acclaim and honor.
A Physics Honors Graduate, she did her masters in Dance and received the Junior Research Fellowship (NET-JRF) of University Grants Commission of India to research for her doctoral thesis titled ‘The influence of Madhurarasa on the development of Indian Classical Dances’.
She is recently awarded the D. Litt by Visva Bharati, Shantiniketan for her voluminous work Manipuri Dance: An assessment on history and presentation, a book published by Shubhi Publications, New Delhi.
Prof. Dr Sruti Bandopadhay was awarded the Visiting Lecturer Fulbright Fellowship in 2007 to teach Manipuri and lecture on Indian Dances in the Department of World Arts and Culture, University of California, USA. She also lectured in the University of California, San Diego, Berkeley and the State University of California, Longbeach.
Her paper on Manipuri Dance gained appreciation in the World Dance Global Summit at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. She performed Manipuri at various festivals in South Africa as a delegate of Indian Government in July 2009. She is the recipient of the 2009 Lalit Kala Ratna award of Sri Lalit Kala Academy, Mysore.
She has been recently awarded the Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellowship to lecture and work at the Department of Dance, Film and Theater Studies, University of Surrey London from October 2012 to Dec 2012.
At present Prof. Dr Sruti Bandopadhay is working as Professor and Head of Department of Dance, Rabindra Bharati University. She has guided 10 theses so far, designed modern curriculum for Dance, and introduced innovative teaching in the Department. She is regularly invited by different universities to lecture at Orientation Courses, Refresher Courses and M.A courses.