ABOUT

Sumana's initial training under Smt. Manjula Mudambi and then Kalashri Smt. Asha Gopal led to her arangetram (debut) in 1989 in Arizona, as a student of the Pandanallur school of Bharata-Natyam. Her exposure during a summer intensive under Smt. Thankamani Kutty in Kolkata encouraged her to refine her technique in abhinaya while at the University of Virginia, where Dr. Aruna Viswadoss guided her in examining Tamil language and literature for dance. Sumana spent 2 years in Sapporo, Japan, where she had the honor of studying and performing Kagura (Shinto ritual dance) with the Hokkaido Shrine Troupe and of being in conversation with buyō (舞踊) master and scholar Gunji-sensei (郡司正勝), exploring the practical and spiritual connections across cultures in dance. She also performed Bharata Natyam and conducted comparative dance workshops there. Sumana sought out guidance under Padma Bhushan Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam at Nrithyodaya, Chennai, India, in 1996 and spent 3 years immersed in a guru-shishya setting, working to master Bharata-Nrityam and the Natyashastra-based pedagogy of imparting Indian classical dance. As part of her training, she also imbibed the Vazhuvoor style of Bharata-Natyam and served as research assistant to Dr. Padma and instructor for primary and intermediate classes at Nrithyodaya. She performed extensively in India with Dr. Padma's troupe, including the Chidambaram Natyanjali Festivals, Doordarshan, and her debut under Dr. Padma at Nungambakkam Cultural Academy (January 1999). Sumana continues to perfect her art with practice, teaching, choreography, and further training and collaborations in dance arts, including earning a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree in Dance at Arizona State University in 2020 and becoming an ASU Gammage Teaching Artist trained in the Kennedy Center Arts Integration method. She has published her work in peer reviewed jounrnals and is training as a facilitator in Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process.