We develop a bipartite rigidity theory for bipartite graphs parallel to the classical rigidity theory for general graphs, and define for two positive integers k , l k,l the notions of ( k , l ) (k,l) -rigid and ( k , l ) (k,l) -stress free bipartite graphs. This theory coincides with the study of Babson–Novik’s balanced shifting restricted to graphs. We establish bipartite analogs of the cone, contraction, deletion, and gluing lemmas, and apply these results to derive a bipartite analog of the rigidity criterion for planar graphs. Our result asserts that for a planar bipartite graph G G its balanced shifting, G b G^b , does not contain K 3 , 3 K_{3,3} ; equivalently, planar bipartite graphs are generically ( 2 , 2 ) (2,2) -stress free. We also discuss potential applications of this theory to Jockusch’s cubical lower bound conjecture and to upper bound conjectures for embedded simplicial complexes.