Sumana Sen Mandala is a Bharata-Nrityam artist and the founding Director of Dansense-Nrtyabodha, a progressive organization serving the Arizona dance community for the past 25 years. She is Co-Director of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process Certification Program, Faculty in the Department of Music, Dance and Theater at Arizona State University, and an Arts & Democracy Fellow at ASU’s Center for the Study of Race & Democracy.
After initial training in Bharata-Natyam in the US, Sumana deepened her love of dance arts with an opportunity to study and perform Kagura (Shinto ritual dance) with the Hokkaido Shrine Troupe during her 2 years in Japan. In 1996, she went to study dance under Padma Vibhushan Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam in Chennai, India, spending 3 years in a gurukul setting. She worked to master Bharata Nrityam and the Natyashastra-based pedagogy of imparting Indian classical dance. As part of her studies, she was research assistant to Dr. Padma, instructor for primary and intermediate classes at Nrithyodaya, and a member of Nrithyodaya's troupe, performing extensively around India, including the Chidambaram Natyanjali Festivals and Doordarshan national TV.
Sumana's work is supported by various organizations, including the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) and Arizona Commission on the Arts. She is the recipient of the 2024 Kathy Lindholm-Lane Award for Arizona Dance Educator of the Year from the Arizona Dance Education Organization. She holds an MFA in Dance, has published in peer reviewed journals and books, is an ASU Gammage Teaching Artist, and a frequent resident teaching artist at schools and colleges around the Phoenix area. She has developed and taught courses on appreciating Indian dances for the Online Professional Development Institue of NDEO.
Sumana’s work is rooted in the philosophy of rasa—deep engagement-- and integrates traditional dance practices in diverse contemporary contexts. Her current project weaves nritya or representational dance with narratives shared between survivors of sexual/domestic violence and Indian dance practitioners in a creative placemaking framework. Based on her research, the project works to respect voice, honor choice, and harness the intelligence of the body, to kindle transformative change within communities.