Sumana Sen Mandala

🪔 About

Sumana Sen Mandala is an accomplished Indian classical dancer, educator, choreographer, and researcher, primarily known for her work in Bharatanatyam and Bharata Nrityam. Her journey in dance began in the United States after moving from India at the age of ten, leading to her arangetram (debut) in 1989 in Arizona, where she trained under Smt. Manjula Mudambi and Kalashri Smt. Asha Gopal in the Pandanallur school of Bharata-Natyam. She further refined her technique in abhinaya during a summer intensive with Smt. Thankamani Kutty in Kolkata, India. While pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in French and Economics from the University of Virginia in 1994, she also delved into Tamil language and literature for dance under Dr. Aruna Viswadoss. Mandala's artistic exploration extended to Japan, where she spent two years studying and performing Kagura (Shinto ritual dance) with the Hokkaido Shrine Troupe and engaging in comparative dance discussions with buyō master Gunji-sensei. In 1996, she returned to India to immerse herself in a three-year gurukula training under Padma Vibhushan Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam at Nrithyodaya, Chennai. Here, she mastered Bharata-Nrityam and its Natyashastra-based pedagogy, also learning the Vazhuvoor style of Bharata-Natyam. During this period, she served as a research assistant to Dr. Subrahmanyam and an instructor for primary and intermediate classes, performing extensively with Dr. Subrahmanyam's troupe, including a debut performance under her guru in January 1999 at Nungambakkam Cultural Academy. In 2000, Sumana Sen Mandala founded Dansense~Nrtyabodha, Inc., an institution dedicated to teaching Bharata-Nrityam and promoting Indian dance arts, which became a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in 2015. She has been teaching classical Indian dance in the US since 2000, and in Phoenix, Arizona, since 2015. Mandala earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Dance from Arizona State University (ASU) in 2020, where she is also a Faculty Associate and an Arts & Democracy Fellow. Her work emphasizes community activism and social justice, translating survivors' stories into Bharata Nrityam vocabulary through projects like "Look into my Voice – Hear my Dance" (LVHD). She is also the Co-Director of the Critical Response Process® (CRP) Certification Program. Her contributions to dance education were recognized with the 2024 Katherine Lindholm-Lane Award for Arizona Dance Educator of the Year. She has published her research in peer-reviewed journals and presented at various conferences. Awards & Honours: Katherine Lindholm-Lane Award for Arizona Dance Educator of the Year (2024), Liz Lerman LLC Artist-in-Residence Award (2025), Arizona Commission on the Arts Lifelong Arts Engagement Award (2026), Arts & Democracy Fellow (2024), Scholarship Award to attend 2024 API-GBV National Summit (2024), ASU Sexual and Relationship Violence Prevention Grant via Changemaker Community Action Grant (2019), Graduate College Travel Award (2020).