The Daily - Ragamala Dance Company transcends culture, time, and space
Ragamala Dance Company transcends culture, time, and space in Meany on Screen performance
Tiasha Datta
December 10, 2020
Original Article
Ragamala Dance Company (RDC), founded in 1992 by Ranee Ramaswamy, is a matriarchal matter. Internationally renowned artistic directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, and choreographic associate Ashwini Ramaswamy, also fulfill the roles of mother and daughters.
The Twin Cities organization uses Bharatanatyam, a South Indian classical dance form, “as a living, breathing language with which to speak about the contemporary human experience.” The Ramaswamys’ first-generation, Indian American identity influences the cultural melding in their art form, and the RDC uses ancient traditions to transcend time and culture while also staying true to the essence of Bharatanatyam.
The Meany On Screen digital showing for RDC includes the piece “Written in Water” and a conversation with Ranee, Aparna, and the artistic director of the Meany Center, Michelle Witt, about the creative process for this piece and the upcoming “Fires of Varanasi,” which is scheduled to be presented next year in Meany Hall.
Ranee gives us a Hinduism 101 lesson for background. Hindus believe in reincarnation, a cycle of birth and rebirth. After death, she explains, you don’t just disappear; souls are like a chip in a computer — carrying all of our good and bad karma and our actions — that is transferred into another body.
Moksha is about realization and liberation — understanding that life is painful and that people want to merge with the divine and not return with this human body, Ranee explained.
Aparna stated that pilgrimage is important in Hinduism because there are many sacred sites that are marked by natural elements. The city of Varanasi is the most sacred, because of the river, the presence of the reigning goddess Ganga, and the paths that pilgrims have created, Aparna said.
Ranee expressed that people travel from all over to place the ashes of their loved ones in the Ganges River, which brings moksha to the deceased and ends the cycle of reincarnation.
Varanasi is a personal location for both mother and daughter.
Ranee explained that, growing up, her family had a metal vessel of Ganges water in their homes, which is meant to be poured onto people who are sick, as this symbolizes being at the Ganges. Since early childhood, she had heard about experiences of people — including her grandmother — who had gone to Varanasi and visited the Ganges, Ranee said.
“Our ancestors walked the sacred pilgrim path,” Ranee said. “I have walked the sacred pilgrim path, and my father’s ashes have been put into the Ganges River.”
The continuity of these fervent beliefs that exists in contemporary society and has developed across generations inspires Aparna and Ranee to explore these beliefs in their work.
Without compromising the integrity of the form or its complexity, Ranee’s mission is to make the work of the RDC accessible and able to be embraced by a wider audience.
For “Written in Water,” the family began with a layer of the Paramapadham game board, adding on the complex Sufi poem, “Conference of the Birds.”
“We are very inspired to layer texts and layer narratives to fully realize that these are very human, very universal concepts,” Aparna said.
Paramapadham is a precursor to Chutes and Ladders. The name is translated to mean the “ultimate feat,” or the ultimate place people want to go, Ranee explained.
The crisp, angular movements of Bharatanatyam in “Written in Water” perfectly represented the movements of the game pieces.
The game has a place in diverse Indian traditions. Different states have their own version of the gameboard; the writing and artwork are done in a script and style originating from that state, explained Ranee.
Ranee used to play this game with her grandmother as a young child in India. Mainly, it was played on special occasions for deities Shiva or Vishnu; adults would play the game all night on Shivaratri, the Hindu festival honoring Shiva. Ranee recalls that kids would lie on the floor and try to play with the adults. The elders would explain the mythological stories relating to the movements as the children played. The game was a distraction for the fasting adults, representing a “complete concentration of life itself.”
In the gameboard, there is intention, action, and a desire for ascension.
“And it's exactly the same with our lives every day,” Ranee said. “If we have good intention and our actions are right, we may ascend or we may come back.”
In the poem, the RDC was drawn to the concept of the journey of the birds through seven valleys of states of being — including love, community, isolation, and loss — which one needs to go through in order to develop as human beings, experience life fully, and seek the maker.
The element of the Sufi poem inspired the artistic directors to create a new musical ensemble and produce a novel score for the work.
The South Asian ensemble is brilliant and captivating. At moments, the performance fuses Arabic lyrics and maqam — traditional “melodic material” of the Near and Middle East, with Indian classical dance — and the distinct traditions blend flawlessly. Another foreign element bringing in new sounds is the trumpet. Behind these musical innovations is the brilliant composer and musician Amir ElSaffar, who plays the jazz trumpet and santoor, and is a singer in the maqam style.
“Even though our work starts from one culture, there are so many other borrowings and [embodiments] of other cultures that makes it so much more exciting,” Ranee said.
Chennai artist V. Keshav brings life to Ranee and Aparna’s vision for “Written in Water'' through his paintings, which feature Hindu deities and are constantly alternating across the stage. Keshav was ideal for the perspective of this piece, as his work explores portrayals of age-old stories of gods such as Krishna in novel, cross-cultural ways without forgoing the essence of the myths.
The dancers start on the game board, and soon each valley is explored, the game board dissolves, and we encounter each state of being. This is overlapped with myths from Hindu traditions, Aparna explained.
The Hindu myth of the churning of the ocean is an integral element of “Written in Water” and is symbolic of the “quiet ocean of our hearts,” Ranee said. The demons and gods agitating the ocean parallels our internal conflicts as the movement of the ocean will cause both our good and bad thoughts to surface and clash.
Reach writer Tiasha Datta at arts@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @TiashaDatta2