RANEE AND APARNA RAMASWAMY’S RAGAMALA DANCE COMPANY
Ragamala Dance Company was founded in 1992 by Ranee Ramaswamy, and is under the leadership of Co-Artistic Director Ranee Ramaswamy and Executive Artistic Director Aparna Ramaswamy, and Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy (mother and daughters). Rooted in the South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam, the company has been hailed by The New York Times as “soulful, imaginative, and rhythmically contagious.”
MISSION
Ragamala Dance Company is the vision of mother-daughter South Indian American artists Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy. Through multi-disciplinary dance works for the stage, engaging the community, and educating the next generation, Ragamala epitomizes intercultural and immigrant narratives that evoke a shared sense of humanity.
VISION
Ragamala Dance Company is a pioneering, intergenerational, family-run organization committed to the idea that while history is time bound, the stories we share are timeless.Ragamala's work in the performing arts field is expansive. We set our gaze far beyond the stage to realize the kindred relationship between ancient and contemporary that is urgently needed in today’s world. Ragamala engages in a collaborative practice with myriad artists and aesthetics and is rooted in the idea of Bharatanatyam as a dynamic living tradition. Ranee and Aparna’s training under legendary artist Alarmél Valli is the bedrock of a creative ethos that springs from beauty, truth, and spirit.
COMMISSIONS AND RESIDENCIES
Ranee and Aparna’s work has been commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts at Cal State Northridge, Northrop at the University of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, the Krannert Center for Performing Arts at the University of Illinois, the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Opening Nights Performing Arts at Florida State University, the Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center at Auburn University, Meany Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Washington, and the American Dance Festival; and developed in residence at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC), the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center (Italy), the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College, the Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), an NPN residency at The Yard and a forthcoming residency at the Bogliasco Foundation Center (Italy).
Described as “the standard bearer of a singularly successful kind of hybridity” (The Huffington Post), Ragamala tours extensively worldwide, including the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Joyce Theater (New York), Lincoln Center (New York), Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (MA), Harris Theater for Music and Dance (Chicago, IL), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, International Festival of Arts & Ideas (New Haven, CT), Cal Performances (Berkeley), the Music Center (Los Angeles, CA), University Musical Society at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI), Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India), and National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai, India), among others.
Ragamala’s work is made possible by the generous support of The McKnight Foundation; the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; The Dr. Dash Foundation, whose mission is to preserve and promote rich Indian heritage and culture; 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; the MAP Fund; The Goodale Family Foundation; the Robert E. and Edith M. Grissinger Foundation; the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; the Marbrook Foundation; the Mardag Foundation; the F.R. Bigelow Foundation; The Saint Paul Foundation; the Minneapolis Foundation; 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); Grantmakers for Girls of Color, a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors; the APAP Cultural Exchange Fund; American Dance Abroad; Target; the Fredrikson & Byron Foundation; RBC Wealth Management; Bremer Bank; the National Endowment for the Arts; the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund; the Minnesota Humanities Center with money from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund that was created with the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008; the City of St. Paul Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program; and Friends of Ragamala.
