Exclusive Representation Elsie Management Laura Colby, Director 718-797-4577 www.elsieman.org Grant Halverson www.ragamaladance.org The Artistic Directors Ranee Ramaswamy Aparna Ramaswamy Ranee Ramaswamy founded Ragamala Dance Described as “thrillingly three-dimensional… rap- Company in 1992 and currently serves as Co-Ar- turous and profound” (The New York Times) and se- tistic Director, Choreographer, and Principal Danc- lected as one of Dance Magazine’s 25 to Watch for er along with her creative partner, and daughter, 2010, Aparna Ramaswamy is Co-Artistic Director, Aparna Ramaswamy. As mother and daughter, each Choreographer, and Principal Dancer of Ragamala brings her generational experience to the work— Dance Company with her choreographic partner the rich traditions, deep philosophical roots, and Ranee Ramaswamy. ancestral wisdom of meet and merge with Born in India and raised both in India and the Unit- their hybrid experience as Indian-American art- ed States, Aparna spent four months every year ists. As a dancemakers and performer, Ranee ex- studying and performing in as senior dis- plores the dynamic tension between the ancestral ciple and protégé of legendary dancer/choreogra- and the contemporary, making dance landscapes pher Alarmél Valli while building her own body of that dwell in opposition—secular and spiritual work as a dancemaker and performer in the Unit- life, inner and outer worlds, human and natural ed States. This cultural hybridity has given her the concerns, rhythm and stillness—to find the tran- perspective to approach as a liv- scendence that lies in between. ing, breathing language through which to create A senior disciple of legendary dancer and cho- works that speak to the contemporary experience. reographer Smt. Alarmél Valli, known as one Aparna has toured extensively, both as a solo- of India’s greatest living masters, Ranee’s train- ist and with Ragamala. Her solo work, present- ing in the South Indian classical dance form of ed with live music, has toured the U.S. and India Bharatanatyam is the bedrock of a creative aes- with support from the National Dance Project and thetic that prioritizes truthful emotion above all USArtists International. Most recently, The Joyce else. Theater in New York presented the world pre- Ranee’s work has merged the classical language miere of her newest solo work, They Rose at Dawn. of Bharatanatyam with a contemporary Western Aparna has been awarded several honors, includ- aesthetic to create timeless pieces that freely ing a 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a move between the past and the present. Ranee is 2016 Joyce Award, three McKnight Artist Fellow- a recipient of a 2014 Doris Duke Performing Artist ships for Dance and Choreography, a Bush Fel- Award, a 2012 United States Artists Fellowship, lowship for Choreography, an Arts and Religion a 2011 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award, a grant funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, cho- Bush Fellowship for Choreography, and 14 McK- reographic and travel support from the Jerome night Artist Fellowships for Choreography and Foundation and State Arts Board, the Interdisciplinary Art. Lakshmi Vishwanathan Endowment Prize from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India). She currently serves on the National Council on the Arts, appointed by President Barack Obama. Ed Bock Ed Bock The Company

Under the direction of Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, Ragamala Dance Company has been hailed by The New York Times as “soul- ful, imaginative and rhythmically contagious,” and “providing some of the most transcendent experi- ences that dance has to offer.” Ragamala’s work has been commissioned by the , Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the Uni- versity of Maryland, the Krannert Center for Per- forming Arts at the University of , the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), and Opening Nights Performing Arts at Florida State University, and has been developed in res- idence at the Magee Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) and during an NPN resi- dency at The Yard. The company has been recog- nized with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Ja- pan Foundation/New York, Minnesota State Arts Board, USArtists International, New Music/USA, MAP Fund, American Composers Forum, and a 2008 and 2016 Joyce Award from the Joyce Foun- dation. The company has toured extensively, highlighted by the American Dance Festival, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Music Center of Los Angeles, Chi- cago Museum of Contemporary Art, International Festival of Arts & Ideas, University Musical So- ciety at the University of Michigan, Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India), and National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai, India).

Hub Wilson Written in Water (Premieres October 2016) With Live Music

Choreographers: Aparna Ramaswamy and Ranee Ramaswamy

5 Dancers

Composers: Amir ElSaffar and Prema Ramamurthy

Original Artwork: Keshav V

Lighting Designer: Jeff Bartlett

Written in Water is Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy’s philosophical investigation of the ancient Indian board game Paramapadam (the precursor to Snakes and Ladders). The performance unfolds upon a large-scale projection of a commissioned Paramapadam gameboard on the stage floor. On this metaphysical map, the seekers/dancers activate the space by negotiating snakes and ladders—which repre- sent the heights of ecstasy and depths of longing. This performance experience offers a distinct perspective through which to actively question the dual cultural planes where many exist, and to help forge a way of telling the story of an increasingly hybridic, global existence.

Written in Water is commissioned by the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (Lead Commissioner) and Opening Nights Performing Arts at Florida State University; supported by a 2016 Joyce Award from the Joyce Foundation, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music/USA, the Carolyn Foundation, and Amplatz Giving; and developed in part at The Yard, the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography, and the Cowles Center for Dance Narendra Dangiya and the Performing Arts. They Rose at Dawn Kírana (2015) (Premieres January 2017) With Live Music With Live Music

Creator and Soloist: Choreographers: Aparna Ramaswamy, Aparna Ramaswamy Ashwini Ramaswamy and Ranee Ramaswamy

Composer: Prema Ramamurthy 5 Dancers

Lighting Designer: Mat Terwilliger Composers: Shubhendra Rao and Saskia Rao-de Haas

In this solo work, women are depicted as carriers The Sanskrit word kírana conjures the rays of of ritual. Navigating inner and outer worlds, they the sun and the moon, which reveal the sky of invoke a sense of reverence, of unfolding mystery, consciousness, illumine every direction, and can of imagination. A stellar Carnatic musical ensem- unravel the metaphysical universe. Ranee, Apar- ble accompanies Aparna Ramaswamy as she ex- na, and Ashwini Ramaswamy re-imagine Kírana plores the spontaneous interplay between music as the cosmic light that conceals and liberates, and movement and the dynamic contours created obscures and enlightens. Kírana explores the es- by the artists onstage. sential aspects of all matter – darkness, energy, and equilibrium.

They Rose at Dawn was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Darial Sneed Ed Bock Sacred Earth Nocturne (2011) (2016) With Live Music With Recorded Music

Choreographers: Aparna Ramaswamy Choreographer: Ashwini Ramaswamy and Ranee Ramaswamy 4 Dancers 5 Dancers Composers: Shubhendra Rao and Saskia Composer: Prema Ramamurthy Rao-de Haas with Rajna Swaminathan

Original Artwork: Anil Vangad

Lighting Designer: Jeff Bartlett

Sacred Earth explores the interconnectedness Described as “an enchanting journey—for one between human emotions and the environment hour we are transported into an exquisite dream that shapes them. In this work, the dancers create state” ( Star Tribune), Nocturne is a sacred space to honor the divinity in the natural the first major work to be conceived/choreo- world and the sustenance we derive from it. In- graphed by long-time Ragamala soloist Ashwini spired by the philosophies behind the ephemeral Ramaswamy. Inspired by the natural, emotional, arts of kolam and Warli painting and the Tamil and spiritual migrations that occur after night- Sangam literature of India, Sacred Earth is Ranee fall, Nocturne summons the different facets of the and Aparna Ramaswamy’s singular vision of the night--the natural world of flora and fauna, the beautiful, fragile relationship between nature and emotional world of anticipation and longing, and man. the heightened spiritual potency of pre-dawn.

The creation of Sacred Earth was made possible in part with Nocturne was developed in part through Red Eye Theater’s funds from the National Dance Project and the National Isolated Acts program and generous support for Ashwini Ed Bock Endowment for the Arts. Christopher Pike Ramaswamy’s Kickstarter campaign. Press Highlights

“Ragamala shows how Indian forms can be some of the most transcendent “The eye often goes straight to experiences that dance has to offer. [Aparna] Ramaswamy’s impeccable This is an excellent company.” technique and incandescent beauty. Through her dancing, the music’s Alastair Macaulay,The New York Times textures come into view.” Siobhan Burke, The New York Times

“The relationship between the music and dance is not only meant to be, it exemplifies what happens when “Ragamala Dance imbues the South artistic boundaries (real or artificial) Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam are radically tested, if not knocked with a thoroughly contemporary down all together.” exuberance… a visionary approach to an ancient art form.” Caroline Palmer, Minneapolis Star Tribune Linda Shapiro, Dance Magazine

“As Indian dancers based in the U.S., “Ragamala has become the standard Ragamala’s works reflect the rich bearer of a singularly successful kind heritage and deep philosophical of hybridity, merging ancient tradi- roots of India amalgamated with the tions into high-end productions that inquisitiveness and creative liberty of are hard to resist” the United States.” Mallika Rao, The Huffington Post George Pioustin, The Hindu

Ed Bock SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2015 The Week Ahead A SURVEY OF THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

DANCE A SOLO HONORING A WOMEN’S WISDOM

GIA KOURLAS

In the classical South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam, the body is material ― an interlocking puzzle of pieces assembled to create otherworldly grace. The fingers splay and stretch apart, the heels flex as a dancer hops from side to side, and the eyes flicker with lively vitality. Aparna Ramaswamy, an artis- tic director (with her mother, Ranee) of the much-respected Ragamala Dance Company in Minneapolis, is a vision of sculptural lucidity whose dancing brings a full-bodied awareness to complex rhythms and shifts of dynamics. All the while, the strength of her purity is second na- ture ― both explicit and seemingly casual. Ms. Ramaswamy will make her Joyce Theater debut in “They Rose at Dawn,” an evening-length solo that hon- ors the wisdom of women, who are seen as the carriers of reverence and imagi- nation. Settle back as Ms. Ramaswamy, accompanied by a Carnatic musical ensemble, unlocks mysteries of feminine mystique. (7:30 p.m., Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 6 and 7; 8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 8, Joyce Theater, joyce.org.)

Narendra Dangiya in the Indian classical dance form of posed building a joint venture around bharatanatyam. the poetry of Andal, who lived in the 8th century or thereabouts. In India, A Divine Blend of Movements Mother and daughter are among the five dancers who interpret “Song Andal is “a household name,” Ranee and South Indian Melodies of the Jasmine,” a roughly hour-long said. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015 work set to music inflected with jazz Ranee was raised in India. Apar- Celia Wren and South Indian music. (Ashwini na grew up primarily in the United Ramaswamy, Aparna’s sister, is also States, but she spent a few months Like a lover yearning for her be- among the dancers.) In a version of in India every year, and was familiar loved, the human soul longs to unite the piece performed at New York’s with Andal’s legacy. Mahanthappa, with the divine. That idea comes into Lincoln Center last year, the dancers raised in Colorado, didn’t know An- play in “Song of the Jasmine,” the drew on bharatanatyam’s physical dal’s writing, but he found the source bharatanatyam dance work scheduled vocabulary in ways that seemed now material fruitful. The Ramaswamys to visit the Clarice Smith Performing seductive, now jaunty, now rapt. “would send me pages and pages of Arts Center on Feb. 7. One side of the stage featured the poetry and their thoughts about the Alice Gebura Choreographed by Ranee Ra- five-person band, including compos- direction of the piece,” he recalled, maswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy er Mahanthappa on alto saxophone. speaking by phone from his base in approach in which “it’s melody and “That was one of the intentions of the Minneapolis-based Ragamala Other instrumentalists played the Montclair, N.J. Often, he “would latch rhythm that are the guiding forces, when we created the piece, to have Dance Company, in collaboration with guitar, the mridangam (a two-sided on to two or three lines [of verse], and and not necessarily Western ideas of that freedom on the stage between saxophonist-composer Rudresh Mah- hand drum), the Carnatic (or southern that would be the big inspiration for harmony and chord progression.” music and dance, and to really under- anthappa, the piece takes inspiration Indian) flute and violin. the musical narrative.” score that relationship,” says Aparna. from the writings of the Tamil mystic Eventually the piece grew to en- Early on, the collaborators agreed poet Andal, known for her devotion to “Song of the Jasmine” began to compass several sections based on Co-commissioned by the Clarice on the instruments that would supply the god Krishna. bloom after the Ramaswamys at- different ragas (a raga is an Indian Smith and other entities, “Song of the tended a concert by Mahanthappa, the accompaniment. Subsequent- musical concept somewhat akin to a Jasmine” premiered last year at the “In Andal’s poetry, and in who is known for fusing elements of ly, the music and choreography fell scale) and rhythmic structures. Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. bharatanatyam — and on a much into place roughly simultaneously: South Indian music with jazz. Aparna As South Indian dancers, “it’s The collaboration with Mahanthap- deeper level as part of the Indian psy- The Ramaswamys and Mahanthappa Ramaswamy says she immediately important that we have a raga-based pa was a new line of inquiry for Rag- che — the sensual and the sacred are typically drafted sketches on their connected with the musician’s sound. music. It pushes the spirituality of amala Dance, but the mystical motifs one. There doesn’t have to be a dis- own, but then, in regular joint work- the work,” says Ranee, whose credits that surface in “Song of the Jasmine” connect between those two concepts,” She resolved to come up with a shopping sessions, they significantly include being appointed by President speak to the company’s broader inter- Aparna Ramaswamy said, speaking project that would involve the com- revised those drafts. by phone from Minneapolis. poser-saxophonist. Discussions about Obama to the National Council on the ests, Aparna Ramaswamy says. Mahanthappa, who had never such a collaboration intensified in Arts. “Dance and music evoke the feeling Aparna and her mother, Ranee, collaborated with dancers previously, 2011, when Ragamala Dance perform- Both score and choreography would of transcendence and spirituality,” she are co-artistic directors of Ragamala found the process exciting. “Dancers ers and Mahanthappa were among the ultimately include sections of impro- says. “I’m very interested in weaving Dance, which Ranee founded in 1992. hear music differently,” he observes. artists participating in the Kennedy visation, including sequences where that thread through any work that we Both women were born in India; both The dancers’ needs, and the specif- Center’s Maximum India festival. the musicians and dancers are essen- do.” have trained with Alarmél Valli, a cel- ics of the ensemble, led him to an ebrated performer and choreographer Eventually, the Ramaswamys pro- tially reacting to each other. Sacred Music and Movement, With an Infectious Beat

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9, 2014 You don’t generally go to a perfor- mance of Bharatanatyam, the classical South Indian dance style, expecting to want to get up and dance. The form inspires a more removed kind of reverence, as something to be admired from afar, like a sacred SIOBHAN object. BURKE DANCE But on Thursday at REVIEW Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Ragamala Dance, a Bharatanatyam company from Minneapolis, upended that ex- pectation with the New York premiere of “Song of the Jasmine,” a soulful, imaginative and rhythmically conta- gious collaboration with the superb jazz composer and alto saxophonist Darial Sneed Rudresh Mahanthappa. It was the Musicians: Rudresh Mahanthappa, Raman Kalyan, and Anjna Swaminathan; Dancer: Aparna Ramaswamy main event on an otherwise tepid program shared with the Chinese hanthappa’s composition, played live, ers, Ashwini Ramaswamy (Aparna’s generosity or a sense of striving to- sewing motion to all four corners of American Arts Council and Kun-Yang oscillated between warbling, wailing sister), Tamara Nadel and Jessica ward some higher form of being. the stage, as if mending the space in Lin/Dancers, a group based in Phila- improvisations and tightly structured Fiala. Those gestures ranged from bold, front of them. delphia. rhythmic cycles for alto sax, guitar, A program note elaborated on their daggerlike strokes of the arms, shoot- Though the sightlines at the Dam- mridangam (two-sided hand drum) inspiration: the eighth-century mus- ing out from the chest, to a fragile, rosch Park Bandshell often masked Mr. Mahanthappa and the artistic di- and Carnatic flute and violin. rectors of Ragamala, Ranee and Apar- ings of the Tamil poet Andal, known quivering lexicon of the hands that their pattering feet and bell-clad na Ramaswamy — they are mother The meeting of jazz and South Indi- for her expressions of “deep longing” suggested stitching, caressing, plant- ankles — a persistent shortcoming of and daughter, as well as the troupe’s an Carnatic traditions was startlingly and “the desire to merge the soul with ing, gathering and other tender ac- that stage — the specificity of their principal dancers — approach their seamless and marvelously danceable the Supreme Consciousness.” Vague tions. At one point, resolving from painted hands, particularly Aparna Ra- art forms with a similar eye (or ear) in the hands of the Ramaswamys, who though that may be, it captures the appealingly asymmetrical arrange- maswamy’s, was breathtaking. toward blending old and new. Mr. Ma- choreographed “Song of the Jasmine” emotional landscape of “Jasmine,” ments into a more cohesive group, for themselves and three other danc- where every gesture radiates joy or the five women performed a kind of International United States Tour Highlights Tour Hightlights

• NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center (Abu Dhabi, • Joyce Theater (New York, NY) UAE) • Lincoln Center Out of Doors (New York, NY) • Music Academy (Chennai, India) • Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts • Narada Gana Sabha (Chennai, India) (, D.C.) • Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.) • American Dance Festival (Durham, NC) • Soorya Rasavikalpam Festival (Trivandrum, • International Festival of Arts & Ideas (New Trissur, Palakkad and Kozhikode) Haven, CT) • National Centre for Performing Arts • Museum of Contemporary Art (, IL) (Mumbai, India) • Opening Nights at Florida State University • Soorya Festival (Kerala and , (Tallahassee, FL) India) • Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH) • Iida Bunka Kaikan (Iida, Japan) • Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN) • Nagoya Kita Bunka Shogekijyo (Nagoya, • Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Japan) Arts (College Park, MA) • Matsumoto Bunka Kaikan (Matsumoto, • Flynn Center (Burlington, VT) Japan) • Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) • Bali Arts Festival (Bali, Indonesia) • Hancher Auditorium (Iowa City, IA) • Festival of Spirituality and Peace (Edinburgh, Scotland) • Krannert Center (Urbana, IL) • Open Look Dance Festival (St. Petersburg, • Phillips Center (Gainesville, FL) Russia) • The Music Center of Los Angeles (Los • Miao-Li International Festival (Miao Li, Angeles, CA) Taiwan) • Lied Center (Lawrence, KS) • Mandapa (Paris, France) • California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)

Ed Bock Contact

Elsie Management

Contact Info Laura Colby, Director 223 Jay Street, Suite 203 Brooklyn, NY 11201 718-797-4577 [email protected] www.elsieman.org

Ragamala Dance Company Aparna and Ranee Ramaswamy, Co-Artistic Directors 711 West Lake Street, Suite 309 Minneapolis, MN 55408 612-824-1968 [email protected] www.ragamaladance.org

John Whiting