Manipuri Dance is a generic name and covers all the dance-forms of the land, Manipur.

The repertoire of Manipuri dances can be divided into three or four broad categories including Thang or martial ritual dancers, dances related to the various jatras, sankirtana traditions and various ballad forms. 

Manipuri Dance can be called  a house of many  mansions. There is a belief that Radha and Krishna were the original author and creator of Manipuri Dance. This Rasa -dance was repeated by Uma and Shiva in Lasya style in Manipur. After many centuries the same Rasa-dance was performed the third time by two mortal human beings, princess Toibi and Khamba. These two star-crossed lovers died in tragic circumstances. The dance than these two lovers performed is known as Lai Haraoba. There are many myths and legends which reveal the Manipuris passionate love for arts, particularly for dance, music and mime. These are woven into the very fabric of their life like a beautiful pattern.

Today Manipuri Dance has become a ruling passion and an aesthetic obsession for initiated artists and the spectators alike because of its colourful adornment, lightness of dancing foot, delicacy of abhinaya, lilting music and poetic charm.