Conversations
Conversation with Darek Mazzone about the creation of Fires of Varanasi | Meany Center for the Arts
Bush Foundation: Always Seeking
Bush Fellows Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy have made the Minnesota-based Ragamala Dance Company into an international bridge builder.
Indian Dance Icon Makes Festival Debut
Cultivating Creativity Series
The Ramaswamys on Artistic and Cultural Leadership | created in partnership with Northrop, the U of M, and The Coven
Ragamala Artistic Directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy and Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy share their years of experience building an arts nonprofit in the Twin Cities and provide vital insights for the next generation of leaders in the arts and culture sector. Moderated by by Dean Sri Zaheer of the Carlson School of Management and Alex West Steinman, CEO/Founder of The Coven, this conversation will touch upon on creative leadership, manifesting legacy, the business of art, and a nontraditional path towards artistic success.
Food for the Souls with Chef Raghavan | Presented in partnership with Northrop Presents
Award-winning chef Raghavan Iyer discusses the Hindu tradition of Shraddham—in which specific foods are prepared every year as an offering to the souls of the ancestors to guide them on their journey through the afterlife and toward their next birth. Chef Iyer speaks with Ranee, Aparna, and Ashwini Ramaswamy about his own experiences as a first-generation Indian-American and the ways in which sustaining one’s culinary traditions can make a new place feel like home. He will also be demonstrating some cooking techniques used in preparing food for Shraddham.
‘What is home? The Multinational Soul with Pico Iyer | Presented by Northrop and the Kennedy Center
Talking to the Dead: An Interfaith Discussion on Life and Death | Presented by the U of M Institute for Advanced Studies and Northrop
This conversation brings together faith and community leaders, Rabbi Lynn Liberman, Godan Nambudiripad, Marc Markell, in an exploration of how we navigate the space between life and death, and how we continue to commemorate those who have passed. Moderated by Virajita Singh, this conversation is inspired by and rooted in Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy’s Fires of Varanasi, which Ragamala Dance Company will perform in Northrop’s 2021-22 season.
Movers and Shapers: A Dance Podcast
Over the last four decades, Ranee and Aparna have forged a path for culturally rooted performing arts organizations and made Ragamala a standard-bearer within the American dance landscape.
Hosted by Erin Carlisle Norton
Conversations on Dance Podcast
Co-artistic director, Ranee Ramaswamy, and her two daughters: co-artistic director Aparna Ramaswamy and Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy, talk 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.
Hosted by Rebecca King Ferraro and Michael Sean Breeden
MPR News: Dance Performances that bridge communities
MPR News host Angela Davis talks with two Twin Cities dance artists who use the language of dance to communicate deep emotions and build bridges between people and communities.
Seeing Performance: Dance and Theater in the Twin Cities
A class at Macalaster College, taught by Ranee Ramaswamy with Bhutto artist Eiko Otake, about the influence of transnational artists and careers.
Hop@Home
Hosted by The Hopkins Center
at Dartmouth College
Listen in on this discussion by three fascinating members of the global Indian community: writer Pico Iyer and Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, co-artistic directors of Minneapolis-based Ragamala. Iyer is a renowned essayist, TED speaker and upcoming Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth. Ragamala wowed Hop audiences in 2018 with their show Written in Water and were in residence this fall and winter at the Hop to create their next show, Fires of Varanasi. Ranee and Aparna took questions through live chat.
Voice of America
A People in America profile of Ranee Ramaswamy who founded the Ragamala Dance Company in Minneapolis. She talks to Voice of America about Bharatanatyam, a popular South Indian dance and reflects on how this art form has kept her centered and balanced, both literally and figuratively.
Creative Mornings
PAIKKA, St. Paul MN
Ranee, Aparna, & Ashwini Ramaswamy of Ragamala Dance Company talk about lineage, tradition, dual cultures, mentorship, and always continuing to grow and learn.
Photo by Rebecca Studios
PBS/TPT Rewire
“Blending Generations and Cultures, Ragamala Dance Company Soars”
For the Ramaswamy family, dance—specifically Bharatanatyam, a South Indian classical dance form—is both lifeblood and business. Aparna and Ranee Ramaswamy studied Bharatanatyam together under renowned soloist Padma Bhushan Smt. Alarmel Valli. In 1992, Ranee founded Ragamala Dance Company in Minneapolis, and appointed Aparna co-artistic director in 2002. Younger sister Ashwini rounds out the family dynamic as a company member and now as artistic associate.
Password: RANEE
Conversation with Philip Bither,
Walker Art Center
In May 2020, Walker Art Center’s performing arts curator Philip Bither spoke with Ranee Ramaswamy about her creative responses to the COVID-19 crisis, ways dance can continue to inform and inspire us, and lessons drawn from her life and diverse career. Ranee Ramaswamy is founder and co-artistic director of Minneapolis’s Ragamala Dance Company, one of the most successful touring contemporary dance companies in the Midwest. She has a longstanding relationship with the Walker and her company has performed numerous works there over the past 20 years.