By Mabel Pais

“People say that immigrants have a longing within them… I have always felt this longing. I have a longing for this dance form…..from a very young age” says Aparna Ramaswamy. “[Ranee Ramaswamy] and I….. have a love for our form, for our teacher, for the creative work. We have a great amount of respect for one another. We have never had any sort of generational tension. We exist in that together; each of us adds a layer in a story that continues forever. We walk that path together. It’s a beautiful thing.”

– Aparna Ramaswamy

 Co-Founder, Co-Artistic Director: Ragamala Dance Company

The Ragamala Dance Company, the brainchild of Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, now in its 30th year, announces their 22/23 Season which features seven performances in Kerala, India, and culminates with a 30th Anniversary Gala Celebration in July 2023. For more information, visit ragamaladance.org/upcoming. Rooted in the expansive South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam, Ragamala Dance Company manifests a kindred relationship between the ancient and the contemporary. To learn more, visit www.ragamaladance.org

“…….every gesture radiates joy or generosity or a sense of striving toward some higher form of being.” – The New York Times

ACCOLADES

Ragamala Dance Company was selected to participate in the first phase of The Wallace Foundation’s new five-year arts initiative focused on arts organizations of color, created as part of the foundation’s efforts to foster equitable improvements in the arts. Following an open call in 2021 that drew over 250 applicants, Ragamala Dance Company was selected as one of 18 nonprofit organizations representing a diverse range of artistic disciplines, geographic locations, and communities served.

Alongside the other selected organizations, Ragamala Dance Company will receive five years of funding to develop and pursue a project to address a strategic challenge. Researchers will document each organization’s work with the aim of developing useful insights about the relationship between community orientation, resilience, and relevance.

RAGAMALA’S VISION

As part of a national cohort of 18 arts organizations of color—selected for high-quality work, deep community roots, and rich contributions to the field — Ragamala’s project will focus on cultivating the next generation of South Asian American artists, arts curators, and arts leaders. With this work, Ragamala looks to continue to revolutionize the U.S. dance landscape by empowering South Asian artists and arts administrators, with the goal of decolonizing the structures that support artists in the U.S. As part of this pivotal initiative, the foundation will also be embedding an ethnographer with Ragamala throughout the next season. Her work will document our legacy, to empower future generations of South Asian and BIPOC artists.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

Avimukta – September 26-October 1, 2022

Creative and technical residency at The Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts

KERALA, INDIA

Fires of Varanasi, Soorya Festival: October 11-17, 2022

Rooted in the expansive South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam, Ragamala Dance Company manifests a kindred relationship between the ancient and the contemporary.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

 November 19-20, 2022 at 7:30pm

Solo by Aparna Ramaswamy, part of The Cowles Center’s Fall Forward Festival.

Find Tickets at thecowlescenter.org/2223/fall-festival

Acclaimed soloist and Co-Artistic Director of Ragamala Dance Company, Ramaswamy’s newest solo further explores her unique layered aesthetic that brings together lineage, rigor, cultural wisdom, and imagination.

“[Ramaswamy] preserves ancient dance forms with stunning virtuosity and expressivity to create a living tradition that is resonant for modern times.” – The Boston Globe

Ashwini Ramaswamy and Kevork Mourad: Invisible Cities, The Cowles Center – Great Northern Festival Northrop

January 27-28, 2023 at 7:30pm

Find Tickets at thecowlescenter.org/2223/invisible-cities

Ragamala’s Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy collaboratively reimagines Italo Calvino’s metaphysical novel with a dynamic group of dance artists.

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA

Mythology Makes Us, in partnership with ‘The Coven’ – January-June 2023

An engagement series in partnership with The Coven, Mythology Makes Us brings history and mythology into the present day through talks, demonstrations, screenings, and community meals/gatherings.

The Coven is a network of radical community and co-working spaces where changemakers connect, learn, and grow, and which centers the experiences of women, non-binary, and trans individuals.

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

Fires of Varanasi, Meany Center for the Performing Arts

February 9-11, 2023 at 8pm

For Tickets, visit

meanycenter.org/tickets/2023-02/production/ragamala-dance-company

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

Let the Crows Come, Modlin Center at the University of Richmond

with live music

March 1, 2023 at 7:30pm

For Tickets, visit tickets.modlin.richmond.edu/0/4985

Evoking mythography and ancestry, Let the Crows Come uses the metaphor of crows as messengers for the living and guides for the departed.

HOUSTON, TEXAS

Fires of Varanasi, Performing Arts Houston

March 10, 2023 at 7:30pm

Find Tickets at performingartshouston.org/events/ragamala-dance-company-2023-03-10-730-pm

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY

Fires of Varanasi, McCarter Theater Center

March 15, 2023 at 7:30pm

For Tickets, visit

mccarter.org/season/2022-2023/ragamala-dance-company-the-fires-of-varanasi

CHICKASHA, OKLAHOMA

Let the Crows Come, University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma

March 23, 2023 at 7:30pm

Presented by the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma as part of the 22nd Season of the Davis-Waldorf Performing Arts Series.

Find Tickets at usao.edu/arts-and-culture/dwpas/22-23-ashwini-ramaswamy.html

SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO

Sacred Earth, Performance Santa Fe – with live music

April 2, 2023 at 4pm

Find Tickets at secure.performancesantafe.org/8057

Sacred Earth explores the interconnectedness between human emotions and the environment that shapes them. Sacred Earth is Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy’s singular vision of the beautiful, fragile relationship between nature and humans.

SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA

Let the Crows Come, BroadStage – with live music

April 7 – 8, 2023 at 7:30pm

For Tickets, visit broadstage.org/showinfo.php?id=454

ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA

Performance by Padma Bhushan Recipient Smt. Alarmel Valli

May 2023

Choreographer Alarmél Valli, Padma Bhushan recipient, is acclaimed internationally for her ability to turn traditional dance vocabulary into deeply personal poetry. Her dance is uncompromisingly classical but at the same time an undeniable language of self-expression. Alarmél Valli seamlessly weaves together threads of the sacred and the sensual, the human and the divine.

ALARMEL VALLI

Alarmél Valli is guru to Ragamala Dance Company Founders/Artistic Directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy since they met her in Minneapolis in 1984. Their training with this master artist formed the foundation of their aesthetic and has been fundamental to the work of the company.

Valli’s performances have been presented at landmark opera houses and theaters worldwide. Highlights include the Bolshoi Theatre, the Vienna International Dance Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Avignon Festival, the Venice Biennale, and the Royal Albert Hall in London, among others.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

30th Anniversary GALA CELEBRATION – July 2023

Join Ragamala Dance Company to celebrate thirty years of award-winning dance and look forward to the next thirty in their hometown of Minneapolis.

The Wallace Foundation

To learn more, visit wallacefoundation.org

Ragamala Dance Company

To learn more, visit ragamaladance.org

(Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Health & Wellness, Cuisine and Spirituality)