NPR Weekend Edition Sunday

How a mother and her daughters created an innovative Indian dance company

May 14, 2023

Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday

By Marianne Combs

Ranee Ramaswamy believes her oldest daughter was put upon the planet to dance.

"We all talk about previous births and reincarnation," says Ramaswamy. When it came to her eldest, Aparna Ramaswamy, she had no doubt. "I think she was a dancer in her previous birth, so it was natural to her. From the age of 3 to now, she has never deviated."

So 30 years ago, Ranee founded the Ragamala Dance Company in Minneapolis, partly as a vehicle for her talented daughter. In the decades since, Ragamala has become famous among U.S. fans of India's oldest classical dance form, bharatanatyam. The dance company regularly gets rave reviews for the dancers' technical precision and spiritual transcendence, as well as for innovative collaborations with other artists.

The company is Ranee's life's work — which she now shares with her daughters. Ranee and Aparna are the co-artistic directors, and Aparna's younger sister, Ashwini Ramaswamy, works for the company as dancer, choreographer and communications director. Each woman brings a specific set of talents to the family business. If Aparna is the head of the company and Ranee is its soul, then Ashwini is, perhaps, its heart.