User:Sam Segal/sandbox

Ragamala Dance Company

Ragamala Dance Company is a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based dance company founded by dancer and choreographer Ranee Ramaswamy in 1992. Under the co-artistic direction of Ranee Ramaswamy and her daughter Aparna Ramaswamy, Ragamala Dance Company uses  the South Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam to create work that explores contemporary themes.

History

Ranee Ramaswamy immigrated to Minnesota from India in 1978 with her then-husband and daughter Aparna Ramaswamy. After seeing a performance by world-renowned Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer Alarmel Valli in Minneapolis in 1983, Ranee and Aparna began studying with her, taking four-month trips to India every year to from 1983–1987. In an interview with Dance Teacher Magazine, Ranee notes that their joint education with Valli established her and Aparna as “colleagues” from the beginning. “Even though I am the mother, we became students at the same time,” she notes. Throughout the 1980s, Ranee and Aparna continued to establish themselves in the Twin Cities dance community, performing in venues large and small throughout the state of Minnesota and collaborating with artists of various dance backgrounds (flamenco, Middle Eastern, tap) in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

In 1991, Ranee collaborated with poet Robert Bly and musicians David Whetstone and Marcus Wise on Mirabai Versions, a piece based on Bly’s translation of the poems of 16^th century Hindu mystic poet Mirabai. In 1992, Ranee and David Whetstone created the production Ragamala: A Painting in Motion based on Indian Ragamala paintings. Subsequently Ragamala Dance Company (then called Ragamala Music and Dance Theater), was founded.

In 1998, the Company received its first commission from the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, for a multidisciplinary piece entitled Where the Hands Go, the Eyes Follow. The piece featured commissioned work from photographer Marc Norberg and jazz musician Howard Levy, along with poets Coleman Barks, Mary Easter, Jane Hirshfield, Janet Holmes, Jim Moore, and Robert Bly. 

In 2002, Aparna Ramaswamy joined Ranee as Co-Artistic Director of Ragamala Dance Company. 

For Sethu (Bridge) (2004), the Company received another commission from the Walker Art Center, along with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. Created in collaboration with Cudamani, a Balinese gamelan ensemble and dance company, the piece employed fifty artists from India, Indonesia, and the United States. It premiered on an open-air stage in the Walker Art Center’s Minneapolis Sculpture Garden.

In 2007, the Company performed its first world-premiere in New York City, debuting Sva (Vital Force) at the New Victory Theater. For this project, Ragamala also received its first funding from the National Dance Project. Set to a commissioned score by Wadaiko Ensemble Tokara, a taiko drumming group from Iida City, Japan, Sva (Vital Force) explored the “kinships between Japanese Taiko and Bharatanatyam."

In 2011, the Company premiered Sacred Earth as the first performance at the newly opened Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. Set to a commissioned score by Carnatic vocalist and composer Prema Ramamurthy, the piece explored the “interconnectedness between human emotions and the environments that shape them.” For Sacred Earth, the Company embarked on its most extensive national tour to date.Song of the Jasmine was commissioned by the Walker Art Center, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, and Lincoln Center in 2014. The project also received funding from the National Dance Project, the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, and more. Informed by the writing of 9^th Century Tamil poet Andal, the piece arose out of a long-term collaboration with jazz saxophonist and composer Rudresh Mahanthappa. Mahanthappa led an ensemble that included South Indian and jazz musicians Rez Abbasi (guitar), V.K. Raman (South Indian flute), Rajna Swaminathan (mridangam/South Indian percussion), and Anjna Swaminathan (violin). The New York Times called their collaboration, “soulful, imaginative and rhythmically contagious,” following the Company’s performance of Song of the Jasmine as a part of Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors series. In 2015, the Company began developing Written in Water, a “large-scale multi-disciplinary” work that combines music, text, and painting. The piece features a commissioned score by Iraqi-American trumpeter, vocalist, santoorist, and composer Amir ElSaffar and Carnatic vocalist and composer Prema Ramamurthy, along with a commissioned set by Chennai-based visual artist Keshav Venkataraghavan. Written in Water is based on the 2^nd century Indian board game Paramapadam, as well as the Persian epic The Conference of the Birds. NYU Abu Dhabi is serving as the piece’s lead commissioner.

In 1997, the Company opened the Ragamala School, a program that provides children and adults with classical training in the Bharatanatyam dance style of Alarmel Valli.

Selected Works

• ·They Rose at Dawn (2015)
• Song of the Jasmine (2014)
• Sannidhi/Sacred Space (2013)
• 1,001 Buddhas: Journey of the Gods (2013)
• Sacred Earth (2011)
• Yathra (Journey) (2011)
• Ihrah: Sacred Waters (2010)
• Dhvee (Duality) (2009)
• Sthree (2009)
• Sva (Vital Force) (2007)
• Devi (Goddess) (2005)
• Sethu (Bridge) (2004)
• Kathambam (2004)
• Body & Soul: A Tribute to Billie Holiday (2003)
• The Transposed Heads (2001)
• Guggun-ku-thakku (2000)
• Wordance (1999)
• From Temple to Theater (1999)
• Where the Hands Go the Eyes Follow (1998)
• Tree Tales (1998)
• Chaturam (1998)
• Return of the Rainseed (1997)
• The Wedding of Valli (1997)
• Asoka (1996)
• Wonderwall (1995)
• Canticle of Mary (1994)
• Ten Incarnations (1993)
• Dawn (1993)
• Puppet Master (1992)
• Ragamala: A Painting in Motion (1992)
• Mirabai Versions (1991)

Company

Current Members

Ranee Ramaswamy (Co-Artistic Director, Principal Dancer, and Choreographer)

Ranee Ramaswamy is the recipient of fourteen McKnight Artist Fellowships for Choreography and Interdisciplinary Art, as well as a 1996 Bush Fellowship for Choreography, a 2011 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award, a 2012 United States Artists Fellowship, and a 2014 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award. She currently serves on the National Council on the Arts. According to Ragamala Dance Company’s website, her work has “merged the classical language of Bharatanatyam with a contemporary Western aesthetic to create timeless pieces that freely move between the past and the present.”

Aparna Ramaswamy (Co-Artistic Director, Principal Dancer, and Choreographer)

Aparna Ramaswamy was born in India and raised both in India and the United States. She graduated from Carleton College in 1997 with a B.A. in International Relations. Aparna is the recipient of a 2015 Joyce Award from the Joyce Foundation, three McKnight Artist Fellowships for Dance and Choreography, along with a Bush Fellowship for Choreography and an Arts and Religion grant funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. In 2010, she was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch”. According to New York Times dance critic Gia Kourlas, “[Ramaswamy] is a vision of sculptural identity whose dancing brings a full-bodied awareness to complex rhythms and shifts of dynamics. All the while, the strength of her purity is second nature - both explicit and seemingly casual.”

Tamara Nadel (Senior Dancer)

Ashwini Ramaswamy (Senior Dancer)

Jessica Fiala (Dancer)

Lalit Subramian (Musician - Mridangam)

Anjna Swaminathan (Musician - Violin)

Past Members

• Bria Borcherding
• Amanda Dlouhy
• Shelly Dreyling
• Kats D. Fukasawa
• Sarah Gerdes
• Jocelyn Gorham
• Alison Kirwin
• Kim Nguyen

External Links

• Ragamala Dance Company