Sangai: Dancing Deer of Manipur

The video is an excerpt from a performance in Keibul Lamjao. The dance drama is a presentation of the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy, Imphal. The dance drama is based on the 1972 essay by M.K. Binodini Devi on the floating wetlands and wildlife of Manipur. Keibul Lamjao is a floating sanctuary of marshy grasslands called phumdi at Loktak Lake in Manipur. It is home to the Sangai, a brow-antlered deer that is locally known as the "animal that looks at you." The biggest threat to the Sangai is man and the performance brings out this reality through the legend of the young chief Kadeng and his lady love Tonu. The drama begins in the forests of Southeast Asia where a herd of Sangai are in deep sleep. When dawn breaks the Sangais dance and play. The performance is choreographed by Thokchom Chaotombi.