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.””
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 The great Bhakti poets of India illuminated that spiritual equality superseded the burden of caste, and instead, they colored themselves in the image of the sacred.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.
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.