Sheila Enamandram, a sophomore at High School South, presents Arangetram, her Indian classical dance debut in the vintage Vazhuvoor style of dance, on Saturday, September 16, at Crossroads Middle School in Monmouth Junction, at 4:30 p.m. Register by E-mail at jenamandram@comcast.net. For information visit www.enamandram.com.
She has been learning Bharathanatyam, the art-form of Indian dance for seven years. She received her training beginning at age eight from Kalaimamani Guru Shrimathi Ramya Ramnarayan, and for the past three years, Sheila has been training intensively under Guru Shrimathi Rhadha.
Rhadha resides in Chennai, India, and teaches primarily from there. United States-based students typically visit Chennai during the winter holidays and she visits the student’s families in New Jersey and California during the spring and summer months and provides intensive training during that period.
Sheila was born and raised in Plainsboro until 1997 when the family moved to West Windsor. Her father, Murali, is operations manager in Citigroup. Her mother, Jayanthi, is a systems analyst for New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance. Her sister Monica graduated from High School South in 2005 and is a sophomore at Yale.
Sheila has been studying piano for nine years, with the past four years under the tutelage of Bing-Bing Chang; and violin for six years with Mia Wu. A member of the Philharmonia Symphony Orchestra in her high school, she continues her music studies with annual evaluations by the Associate Board of the Royal Schools of Music (England). Sheila performed as a piano accompanist in several programs in middle school, and has performed in various recitals for honors students conducted by the New Jersey Music Teachers Association.
Her extracurricular activities at South include the yearbook and South Asian Awareness Student Association. She served as the String Ensemble Vice President last year and will be serving as Student Council Member this year. She was a member of her class Math League team, which came in first place statewide. A volunteer for the Red Cross since middle School, she performed in Bharathanatyam, a benefit recital for the Red Cross in 2003, and is an officer of the Red Cross Club at South.
