Conversations on Dance Podcast: Ranee, Aparna, and Ashwini Ramaswamy
A podcast featuring weekly chats with the dance world's best and brightes
Hosted by Rebecca King Ferraro and Michael Sean Breeden.
March 14, 2022
Today we hear about the Ragamala Dance Company. We are joined by the company’s founder and co-artistic director, Ranee Ramaswamy, and her two daughters: co-artistic director Aparna Ramaswamy and Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy. This mother-daughter run company was founded in 1992 and is rooted in the South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam. 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. They train the next generation of dancers through the Ragamala Training Center.
We talk with this trio about their origins in dance, the style of Bharatanatyam, the founding of their company, their choreography, and what they have coming up in the next few months. The company will be performing ‘Fires of Varanasi’ at the Soraya in Los Angeles on April 9, 2022 (https://www.thesoraya.org/calendar/details/ragamala-2022). The premiere of Ashwini Ramaswamy ‘Let the Crows Come’ is April 13, 2022 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (https://www.albany.edu/pac/news/2021-ashwini-ramaswamys-let-crows-come-march-27).
