Amritha Mangalat, a student of Sunanda Narayanan’s Thillai Fine Arts Academy, gave her Arangetram in the classical Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam on September 28th, 2002, at the Doherty School Auditorium in Andover, MA. Amritha Mangalat is a 11-year old who is a straight A 6th grade student at Broad Street Elementary school in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Amritha began learning Bharatanatyam under Guru Poornima Gururaja, when she was only four years old. Following Poornima’s return to India, Amritha continued her training in Bharatanatyam under Guru Sunanda Narayanan.

Over 400 people attended Amritha’s Arangetram in September, 2002. Amritha opened the performance with a traditional Alaripu and invocation to the elephant-faced God Ganesha. She followed this with a Kauthuvam in praise of Nataraja and an elaborate varnam on Lord Venkateshwara, a composition of the violin maestro, Lalgudi Jayaraman. In the second part of the performance, Amritha performed a piece on Krishna, a famous and evocative composition on Goddess Parvathi, a composition on Lord Padmanabha, a folk item on Lord Muruga, and a lilting and fast paced Tillana. Each piece was performed with precision, verve, and poise. Most members in the audience were intensely moved by the involvement and dedication apparent in the performance of so young a child. That this was a gifted child with incredible talent became obvious to the audience and they rose spontaneously at the end of the performance to give Amritha a resounding standing ovation.

Amritha was accompanied on the orchestra by Guru Sunanda Narayanan on the Nattuvangam, noted dance scholar and musician Sujatha Vijayaraghavan as the lead vocalist, Murali Balachandran on the Mridangam, Tara Anand on the Violin, and Durga Krishnan on the Veena.

Amritha learns Carnatic vocal music from Smt. Sandhya Sridhar and Veena (classical Indian string instrument) from Smt. Durga Krishnan. She has also been learning to play the clarinet from Ms. Stacy Bachelder and horseback from Ms. Laurie Shiffer.

While in 3rd grade, Amritha was the recipient of the Nicholas Green Award given to New Hampshire's most outstanding student of the year and meant for children between 3rd and 6th grades. This year, Amritha was the New Hampshire state-level winner of the KFC Colonel Way Award essay contest, and she was also one of the Top Ten winners for two online poetry contests. She won the recent North South Foundation Regional Spelling Bee contest. Amritha has won many prizes in local riding shows as well.

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