• By Mabel Pais

Ashwini Ramaswamy & Kevork Mourad’s ‘Invisible Cities,’ world premiere, will be presented both livestream and in-person on January 27 & 28, 2023 at 7:30 pm at the Cowles Center’s Goodale Theater, 528 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN. This two-night engagement is part of Ragamala Dance Company’s 30th Anniversary Season. The event is a collaborative presentation of The Great Northern Festival, The Cowles Center, and Northrop.

Bharatanatyam choreographer and dancer Ashwini Ramaswamy (Ragamala Dance Company), deepens a choreographic methodology she began in 2019 with ‘Let the Crows Come’ — named a “Best of the Year” in The Washington Post and a critic’s pick in The New York Times. ‘Invisible Cites’ is a collaborative reimagining of Italo Calvino’s metaphysical novel, interweaving cultural perspectives with a dynamic group of dance artists — Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy (Bharatanatyam); Berit Ahlgren (Gaga), Alanna Morris (Modern), and Joseph Tran (Breaking), and visual artist Kevork Mourad, who creates Invisible Cities’ interactive, immersive projections in real time. Ranee and Aparna join Ashwini as guest choreographers and performers on this work.

TICKETS

For more Information & Tickets, visit thecowlescenter.org/2023/invisible-cities

CHOREOGRAPH YOUR CLASSIC EVENT

‘Choreograph Your Classic’ event takes place on January 19, 2023, at Magers & Quinn Booksellers.

Ashwini Ramaswamy, lead choreographer of Invisible Cities, and Will McGrath (author, Everything Lost is Found Again, Farewell Transmission) discuss her process of adapting Italo Calvino’s book as a multi-faceted dance performance (premieres January 27 and 28, 2023). Long an inspiration for artists of many disciplines, Calvino’s 1973 novel is a meditation on the environments all around us. The ‘Invisible Cities’ performance will evoke the book’s themes through movement communicated via four dance traditions: Bharatanatyam (Classical Indian), Modern/African Diasporic, Breaking, and Gaga, as Syrian-American digital artist Kevork Mourad fills the space with live illustrations. Ramaswamy and the other lead choreographers Alanna Morris, Berit Ahlgren, and Joseph ‘MN Joe’ Tran will describe their process of finding cohesion and harmony among the myriad perspectives they bring to their work.

Ragamala Dance Company

Ragamala Dance Company was founded in 1992 by Ranee Ramaswamy and is under the leadership of Artistic Directors Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, and Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy (respectively, mother and daughters). Their guru, the legendary Bharatanatyam artist Alarmel Valli of Chennai, India, has guided their training for almost 40 years, imparting her rare combination of aesthetic brilliance, emotive depth, and physical rigor. Ranee and Aparna have ushered this lineage into their own imaginative ecosystems, infusing it with their personal experiences as diasporic artists. Ragamala has become the standard bearer for Bharatanatyam dance in the United States, and has been called “soulful, imaginative, and rhythmically contagious” (The New York Times) and “a wholly magnificent piece of live art” (The Chicago Tribune). We are a pioneering, intergenerational, family-run organization committed to the idea that while history is time bound, the stories we share are timeless. Ragamala engages in a collaborative practice with myriad artists and aesthetics and is rooted in the idea of Bharatanatyam as a dynamic living tradition.

Ranee Ramaswamy (mother of Aparna & Ashwini) serves on the National Council on the Arts, appointed by President Barack Obama. Among her recent awards and honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship (Italy), Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Research Fellowship (Italy), United States Artists Fellowship, and McKnight Distinguished Artist Award.

Aparna is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship (Italy), Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Research Fellowship (Italy), Joyce Award, and Bush Fellowship for Choreography, among others, and has been selected as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch for 2010.

Ashwini is the lead choreographer and director of ‘Invisible Cities. Her work has been commissioned by The Liquid Music Series, The American Dance Platform, Macalester College, and The Great Northern Festival, among others.

Learn more at ragamaladance.org

The Great Northern

To more information on The Great Northern, visit the greatnorthernfestival.com or follow along on social media

 @TheGreatNorthernFestival on Facebook and Instagram and

@greatnorthern on Twitter.

The Cowles Center

Learn more at thecowlescenter.org/2023/invisible-citiesthecowlescenter.org or follow @thecowlescenter on Facebook and Instagram.

Northrop

For more information, visit npnweb.org

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WORLD’S BELOVED BALLET COMES TO LIFE AT NJPAC

• By Mabel Pais

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Sunday, January 15, 2023 @ 6PM @ Prudential Hall

Sleeping Beauty is one of the world’s most beloved ballets and one of Tchaikovsky’s most captivating masterpieces. The tale of a princess cursed to sleep for 100 years comes to life with The State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine, who perform dazzling choreography adapted from the legendary Marius Petipa. Tchaikovsky himself declared Sleeping Beauty his best work, and audiences of all ages will enjoy the colorful costumes, festive music and charming fairytale love story.

TICKETS

For Tickets, visit njpac.org/event/sleeping-beauty-the-state-ballet-theatre-of-ukraine

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