Mpls/St. Paul Magazine: "What Ragamala Dance Company's New Show Says About Life and Death"
Ranee Ramaswamy, along with her daughters, Aparna and Ashwini, are using Bharatanatyam, an ancient Hindu dance form, to help us understand modern life... and death.
By Steve Marsh
“They say that when you die in Varanasi,” Ramaswamy explains during our visit to her south Minneapolis studio, “Hindus believe Shiva himself whispers a mantra in your ear.”
Sitting in the Ragamala studios/offices and talking about death and reincarnation with Ramaswamy and her two daughters—eldest Aparna is co–artistic director with her mom, and youngest Ashwini is choreographic associate as well as in-house PR and comms—isn’t nearly as much of a downer as you might think. I mean, yes, the three of them are all wearing black blouses (Ranee is wearing hers with nutmeg-hued slacks; Aparna and Ashwini with blue jeans). And their new show, Fires of Varanasi, (which debuted at the Kennedy Center last September and will play Northrop for one night only on February 26), was inspired by the death of Ranee’s father and Aparna and Ashwini’s grandfather. And the dance is being presented in the context of a seemingly never-ending pandemic. But for Hindu believers, death is not the end. In fact, it’s one of the most beautifully meaningful parts of life.
