Written in Water

“This sensory-rich, idea-steeped work elevates snakes and ladders to spiritual heights.”
- The Washington Post

 
 

Conceived and choreographed by Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, Written in Water explores the universal archetype of a seeker on a journey to connect the human with the transcendent and reveal mysteries within the self. In this large-scale, multimedia dance work, dancers and musicians move freely between composition and improvisation, and activate the space by negotiating snakes and ladders--representing the heights of ecstasy and depths of longing. 

Forging new artistic paradigms, Ragamala has commissioned a score from Carnatic composer Prema Ramamurthy and Iraqi-American composer/musician Amir ElSaffar -- who leads a live, 5-person musical ensemble with a distinct alchemy of Iraqi, jazz, and South Indian instruments. The work unfolds amidst lush images of paintings commissioned from visual artist V. Keshav (Chennai, India), projected on the stage floor and upstage scrim.

 

TOURING HISTORY

The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Washington DC
The Soraya, Los Angeles, CA
University Musical Society at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Cal Presents at Zellerbach Hall, University of California/Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
University of Texas, Austin, TX
Walton Arts Center, Fayetteville, AK
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Beckett, MA
Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Chicago, IL
Ordway Center for Performing Arts, St. Paul, MN

Photo courtesy of Opening Nights Performing Arts(1) copy.jpg

Written in Water was commissioned by the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (Lead Commissioner) and Opening Nights Performing Arts at Florida State University. The creation of Written in Water was made possible, in part, by a 2016 Joyce Award from the Joyce Foundation, the Doris Duke Performing Artist Awards program, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music/USA (made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation), the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation), the Fredrikson & Byron Foundation, and the Carolyn Foundation, and was supported in part by choreographic and production residencies at The Yard in Martha’s Vineyard, the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) at Florida State University in Tallahassee, and the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis, MN.

 
 
 
 

Sacred Earth

“Ragamala imbues the South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam with a thoroughly contemporary exuberance.” - Dance Magazine

 
 

Sacred Earth explores the interconnectedness between human emotions and the environment that shapes them. Performed with a stellar musical ensemble from India, the dancers create a sacred space to honor the divinity in the natural world and the sustenance we derive from it. Inspired by the philosophies behind the ephemeral arts of kolam and Warli painting, and the Tamil Sangam literature of India, Sacred Earth is Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy’s singular vision of the beautiful, fragile relationship between nature and man.

 
 

TOURING HISTORY (partial list)

Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival, Brookly, NY
American Dance Festival, Durham, NC
Cowles Center, Minneapolis, MN
Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
Hancher Auditorium at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
University Musical Society at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Phillips Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
The Lied Center at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
The Music Center of Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
Utah Presents, Salt Lake City, UT
The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai, India
Just Festival, Edinburgh, U.K.

 

 

Support for the creation of Sacred Earth was made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Dance Project of the New England Foundation for the Arts (with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and additional funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Community Connections Fund of the MetLife Foundation, and the Boeing Company Charitable Trust), and generous support from members of Ragamala’s Rasika Circle.

 
 
An enchanting journey—for one hour we are transported into
an exquisite dream state.
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
 
 

Nocturne is the first major work to be conceived/choreographed by long-time Ragamala soloist Ashwini Ramaswamy. Inspired by the natural, emotional, and spiritual migrations that occur after nightfall, Nocturne summons the different facets of the night—the natural world of flora and fauna, the emotional world of anticipation and longing, and the heightened spiritual potency of pre-dawn. 

Only available with recorded music.

 
 

 

Nocturne was developed in part through the Red Eye Theater’s Isolated Acts program (Minneapolis, MN) and Triskelion Arts’ Split Bill Program (Brooklyn, NY). The music for Nocturne was commissioned by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.

 
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Aparna Ramaswamy is a vision of sculptural lucidity whose dancing brings a full-bodied awareness to complex rhythms and shifts of dynamics
— Gia Kourlas, The New York Times
 
 

In this solo work, women are depicted as carriers of ritual. Navigating inner and outer worlds, they invoke a sense of reverence, of unfolding mystery, of imagination.
A stellar Carnatic musical ensemble accompanies Aparna Ramaswamy as she explores the spontaneous interplay between music and movement and the dynamic contours created by the artists onstage.

 
 

 

Support for the creation of They Rose at Dawn was provided in part 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.

 
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Body, the Shrine

“Ragamala imbues the South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam with a thoroughly contemporary exuberance... a visionary approach
to an ancient art form.”
— Dance Magazine

Created and performed by Ranee Ramaswamy,
Aparna Ramaswamy, Ashwini Ramaswamy
3 dancers, 1 crew (same day load-in)

 
 

In their first evening-length work as a trio, Body, the Shrine, mother and daughters, Ranee, Aparna and Ashwini Ramaswamy, celebrate the power of song, dance, and poetry to incite change. The great Bhakti poets of India illuminated that spiritual equality superseded the burden of caste, and instead, they colored themselves in the image of the sacred.

The Ramaswamys underscore the power of ancient forms reimagined to speak to the contemporary experience. Through the dance language of Bharatanatyam (classical form from Southern India), they explore the animating tension between the ancestral and the present moment, highlighting the fluidity between the secular and the spiritual, the human and the natural. Body, the Shrine conjures a world where we can surrender to the vulnerability and empathy that can exist between all of us.

 
 
 
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Support for the creation of Body, the Shrine was provided in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Marbrook Foundation, the Goodale Family Foundation, and New Music USA (to follow the project as it unfolds visit https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/body-the-shrine).

Music for Body, the Shrine was commissioned by the Charles and Joan Gross Family Foundation.