Written in Water A production of Ragamala Dance Company Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy Concept and Choreography, Artistic Directors Friday Evening, October 20, 2017 at 8:00 Power Center Ann Arbor 13th Performance of the 139th Annual Season 27th Annual Dance Series Traditions and Crosscurrents Tonight’s performance is sponsored by Masco Corporation Foundation. Funded in part by the Arts Midwest Touring Fund, a program of Arts Midwest that is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional contributions from Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Crane Group. Media partnership is provided by Ann Arbor’s 107one and Michigan Radio 91.7 FM. Special thanks to Jennifer Boyak, Clare Croft, Sreyashi Dey, Cara Graninger, and Chaula Thacker for their participation in events surrounding this evening’s performance. Written in Water appears by arrangement with Elsie Management. In consideration of the artists and the audience, please refrain from the use of electronic devices during the performance. The photography, sound recording, or videotaping of this performance is prohibited. CAST Dancers / Aparna Ramaswamy, Ranee Ramaswamy, Ashwini Ramaswamy, Tamara Nadel, Jessica Fiala Musical Ensemble / Amir ElSaffar, trumpet, santur, and vocals; Preethy Mahesh, vocals; Rajna Swaminathan, mridangam; Arun Ramamurthy, violin; Kasi Aysola, nattuvangam CREATIVE TEAM Concept and Choreography / Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy Choreographic Associate / Ashwini Ramaswamy Musical Composition / Amir ElSaffar and Prema Ramamurthy Development of the Musical Score / Amir ElSaffar, Aparna Ramaswamy, and Ranee Ramaswamy, with the musical ensemble Visual Art / Original paintings by Keshav Additional Artwork / Nathan Christopher Historical Image / provided by the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge Lighting Design / Jeff Bartlett Sound Engineer / Maury Jensen Lighting Supervisor and Production Manager / Mat Terwilliger Video Director / Rob Simmer Written in Water is approximately one hour in duration and is performed without intermission. Following this evening’s performance, please feel free to remain in your seats and join us for a post-performance Q&A with members of the company. 3 FROM THE CHOREOGRAPHERS In Written in Water, we explore the In developing Written in Water, we concept of spiritual ascension through played the game hundreds of times, the second-century Indian board using the floor as the board and game Paramapadam (a precursor to our bodies as the game pieces. The Snakes & Ladders), the 12th-century projected images are from original Sufi text The Conference of the Birds, paintings by Chennai-based visual and the Hindu mythological story artist Keshav, specially commissioned Ksheerabthi Madanam, the churning of by Ragamala for this work. Written the seven seas. in Water was developed through We have drawn upon The Conference an ongoing collaboration in which of the Birds to frame the arc of Written choreography, music, and visual art in Water. The protagonists of this Sufi were constructed simultaneously epic progress through seven valleys, in a constant artistic dialogue that representing states of being. With spanned two years. Written in Water, we mirror their journey through a world of psychological — Ranee Ramaswamy and complexity, traversing experiences Aparna Ramaswamy of spiritual longing, human love, unity with others, detachment from material life, and finally, ultimate oneness with the divine. In the first movement of Written in Water, we experience human life, love, and struggle, explored through the framework of the board game Paramapadam. The game board serves as a physical and metaphorical framework through which the seekers/dancers navigate snakes and ladders representing the heights of ecstasy and the depths of longing. In the second movement, we explore the human quest for the divine. The mythological story of Ksheerabthi Madanam is a metaphor for a world in chaos. Amidst this dynamic tension between good and evil, Vishnu stands for the perfect center toward which humans strive. In the final movement, we journey toward transcendence — toward unmediated union with the divine. 4 ARTISTS Ragamala Dance Company was founded each brings her generational experience in 1992 by Ranee Ramaswamy. Now in its to the work — the rich traditions, deep 25th season under the direction of Ranee philosophical roots, and ancestral wisdom Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy of India meeting and merging with their (mother and daughter), Ragamala creates hybridic perspectives as Indian-American work that conveys a sense of reverence, artists. As protégés and senior disciples of of unfolding mystery, and of universal legendary dancer/choreographer Alarmél celebration. Valli, known as one of India’s greatest Ragamala has been hailed by The New living masters, Ranee and Aparna’s training York Times as ”soulful, imaginative, and in the South Indian classical dance form rhythmically contagious.” Ragamala has of Bharatanatyam is the bedrock of their toured extensively, highlighted by the creative aesthetic. Kennedy Center (Washington, DC), Joyce Ranee and Aparna’s work is supported Theater (New York), Lincoln Center (New by the National Endowment for the Arts, York), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), National Dance Project, MAP Fund, The American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), McKnight Foundation, the Doris Duke Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Charitable Foundation, New Music/USA, International Festival of Arts & Ideas USArtists International, and the Japan (New Haven, CT), Arts Center at NYU Foundation, and has been commissioned Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Just by the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), Festival (Edinburgh, UK), Bali Arts Festival Lincoln Center Out of Doors (New York), (Indonesia), Sri Krishna Gana Sabha Krannert Center (University of Illinois), (Chennai, India), and National Centre for Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center Performing Arts (Mumbai, India). (University of Maryland), Opening For upcoming tour dates in the Nights Performing Arts (Florida State US and abroad, or to subscribe to University), and Arts Center at NYU Abu Ragamala’s e-newsletter, please visit Dhabi (UAE); and they have developed www.ragamaladance.org. work in residence at MANCC (the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography) Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna and an NPN residency at The Yard. Most Ramaswamy (artistic directors/ recently, Ranee and Aparna were selected choreographers/principal dancers) are as Research Fellows by the Rockefeller artistic directors, choreographers, and Foundation Bellagio Center (Italy). principal dancers of Ragamala, founded Ranee currently serves on the National by Ranee in 1992. As dance makers and Council on the Arts, appointed by President performers, they explore the dynamic Barack Obama. She is recipient of a 2014 tension between the ancestral and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a contemporary, making dance landscapes 2012 United States Artists Fellowship, a that dwell in opposition — secular and 2011 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award, spiritual life, inner and outer worlds, a Bush Fellowship for Choreography, the human and the natural, rhythm and and 14 McKnight Artist Fellowships for stillness — to find the transcendence that Choreography and Interdisciplinary Art. lies in between. As mother and daughter, 5 Aparna is recipient of a 2016 Doris Duke a broad spectrum of traditions, from Performing Artist Award and a 2016 Joyce maqam to American jazz. In addition, Award. Described by The New York Times as he has worked with jazz legend Cecil “thrillingly three-dimensional…rapturous Taylor, and prominent jazz musicians and profound,” she has received three such as Mark Dresser, Gerry Hemingway, McKnight Artist Fellowships for Dance and Marc Ribot, Henry Grimes, and Oliver Choreography and a Bush Fellowship for Lake. Mr. ElSaffar has appeared on Choreography, and was selected as one numerous recordings, and has released of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” for six under his own name, Maqams of 2010. Her solo work, presented with live Baghdad (2005), Two Rivers (2007), Radif music, has toured the US and India with Suite (2010), Inana (2011), Alchemy (2013), support from the National Dance Project and Crisis (2015). For more information, and USArtists International. Aparna is an please visit www.amirelsaffar.com. empaneled artist with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and serves on the Smt. Prema Ramamurthy (composer) Board of Trustees of Dance/USA. has been an outstanding vocalist and composer for more than four decades. Amir ElSaffar (composer, trumpet, santoor, She was initiated into music by her maqam vocals) has distinguished himself parents, the Late Sri S. Nagaraja Iyer and with a mastery of diverse musical traditions Smt. Jayalakshmi, and her grandfather, and a singular approach to combining Sri S. Srinivasa Iyer. Ms. Ramamurthy has Middle Eastern musical languages with had further intensive training under the jazz and other styles of contemporary great Maestro “Padmavibhushan” Dr. music. A recipient of the 2013 Doris Duke Mangalampalli Balamurali Krishna. She has Performing Artist Award, Mr. ElSaffar has also specialized in the art of Pallavi singing been described as “uniquely poised to from Vidwan Sri T. V. Gopalakrishnan, and reconcile jazz and Arabic music without has learned the art of singing padams doing either harm,” (The Wire) and “one and javalis from the veteran musician of the most promising figures in jazz Mrs. T. Muktha. Ms.