Projects
Founder:
Ragamala Dance Company
Founder and Artistic Director since 1992
Ranee Ramaswamy Solo: Abhinaya
March 31st, 2023
Art + Medicine: Dance into your 70s like Ranee Ramaswamy
Ranee Ramaswamy still dances bharatanatyam in her 70’s, but makes conscience decisions about what she performs in order to none her age and the realities of her changing mobility.
Art + Medicine: Healthy Aging, a TPT co-production with the Center for the Art of Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School.
"My interpretive style has grown with age, with my understanding of life, and of how to express, observe and emote in a very natural way." — Ranee Ramaswamy
Lineage
Concept by Ranee Ramaswamy
Filmed and Edited by Caitlin Hammel and Ranee Ramaswamy
Lineage is a visually dynamic window into Founder/Co-Artistic Director Ranee Ramaswamy’s 40-year relationship with the art form of Bharatanatyam, and embodies Ragamala's mission to amplify South Asian stories within today's world.
Funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board
Virtual Education Series: Basics of Bharatanatyam
Created during the Spring of 2020, this series invites you to learn Bharatanatyam Basics from the legendary Ranee Ramaswamy right from home.
6 Yards of Memory
Funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board
Past Projects
Ode to Navaratri Kolu: a documentary produced by Ragamala Dance Company
Ode to Navaratri
“A celebration of art and community… bringing neighbors together.”
Ranee’s first Navaratri project was funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board in 2015.
”Bringing the Arts from Home to Community,” highlighted the Indian festival its central concepts of tradition, creation, and sharing through a celebration of art and community. Offered free and open to the public, this project reflected Ragamala Dance company’s mission of combining tradition and innovation in all its work.
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
In the southern Indian region of Tamil Nadu, Navarathri is an occasion for families to transform their homes into community gathering places where neighbors are welcomed and all come together to invoke the arts.
At the center of the celebration in every home is a display of figurines called Bommai Golu —artistically rendered figurines made of hand-painted clay, arranged on a structure of ascending steps laid out in multiples of three. Each family has its own collection, assembled over generations. The surrounding room is decorated with Kolams—floor drawings made with rice flour. In India there is divinity in all things, Annapurna the goddess of food is part of all celeberations. specially-prepared snacks specified traditionally —different on each night—are shared with guests.
The sharing of art is at the heart of Navarathri celebrations. Visual arts, music, dance, storytelling, culinary arts all shared. Guests of all ages are invited to share classical music and dance in a communal celebration in which everyone is allowed to be a vehicle for the arts.
Kolam
Every morning before sunrise women create designs with rice flour, and their fingers. This art is called kolam which means beautiful lines. I learned this art as a young child from my mother as that was how it was passed on. These white lace like designs are made in front of the main entrance of our homes directly on the earth after washing the area with water. Kolams honor the earth and invokes the goddess of prosperity. It blesses those who leave and welcomes those who come. It is slowly erased as the day goes by showing us at all times that things of beauty die, and do not last. It is a gesture of giving back to the earth for what we have received as Birds and insects eat them all day. The size, and intricacy of the design acts as a public announcement to the outside of what is happening inside the home. Unless there is a death in the family a design is done every single day. This ritual completely demands concentrated time when body and mind are totally involved.
Written in Water Research
Sufi Board
Written in Water Research
Keshav
Funded by the Minnesota State Arts Board
Dramaturg, Fires of Varanasi
Past Projects
The creation and premiere of Haven’t I Hidden Your Name were made possible in part by generous support from Beth El Synagogue; the Howard B. and Ruth F. Brin Jewish Arts Endowment, a fund of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation’s Foundation; Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, an initiative of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation; and the voters of Minnesota through an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Haven’t I Hidden Your Name? (2017)
Haven’t I Hidden Your Name? is rooted in the writings of the Sephardic Jewish poets of southern Spain’s Golden Age—a period of Islamic rule known for innovations in art and thought that emerged from the intermingling of Islamic, Jewish, and Christian traditions. In this solo work created for her long-time student and disciple Tamara Nadel, choreographer Ranee Ramaswamy uses the living language of Bharatanatyam to explore themes of love, longing, and devotion through the lens of Tamara’s Jewish background.
An original musical score by Cantor Basya Schechter, Lalit Subramanian, Vinod Krishnan, and Cantor Audrey Abrams—specially commissioned for this work—weaves together Jewish and South Indian musical genres and instrumentation.
Children’s Theatre Company Presents THE IRON RING (2010)
Joined by the beautiful artistry of Ragamala Dance and the work of acclaimed Twin Cities' choreographer Ranee Ramaswamy, The Iron Ring is an epic tale infused with humor and the fascinating movements of Bharatanatyam dance, a 2,000 year-old dance form originating in India.
"Ranee introduced me to The Iron Ring and this has been an amazing partnership. She brings a deep love of storytelling, and the Ragamala dancers are so exquisitely talented," says Peter C. Brosius, artistic director for CTC and director of The Iron Ring. "I am dazzled by the dance form: its fierceness, delicacy and precision."