Ragamala Dance at Lakewood Cultural Center May 3, 2012

Lakewood Cultural Center welcomes

Ragamala Dance - ‘Sacred Earth’ featuring soloist Aparna Ramaswamy

The Lakewood Cultural Center presents Ragamala Dance in "Sacred Earth" at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 3 in the intimate 316-seat theater at 470 S. Allison Parkway at Wadsworth Boulevard and West Alameda Avenue. Tickets are $26 for adults and are available by calling 303-987-7845, going online to www.Lakewood.org/CulturalCenter or visiting the Lakewood Cultural Center Box Office. Senior, student and group discounts available. Free parking on-site.

Artistic Director Ranee Ramaswamy has created dances that pulsate with rhythmic excitement and the visceral narration of stories both ancient and modern. Through collaboration with composers, poets, visual artists, photographers, and artists in other dance styles – from flamenco to Balinese to Western modern dance – Ragamala Dance has created what Ranee calls "conversations with other forms." “Sacred Earth” brings together the rich and ancient Indian visual art traditions of Warli paintings and Kolam rice flour drawings into conversation with Bharatanatyam, the classical dance of southern India.

As founder and artistic director, Ranee also has been a master teacher and performer of Bharatanatyam since 1978. Recently, she was named the McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist for 2011. Since 1984, Ranee has been a disciple of Alarmél Valli, one of India’s greatest living masters. She has worked with celebrated artists such as poet Robert Bly, jazz musician Howard Levy, legendary composer/violinist Dr. L. Subramaniam, the Çudamani ensemble (Bali, Indonesia), and Wadaiko Ensemble Tokara (Nagano, Japan). Among her many grants and fellowships are 13 McKnight Artist Fellowships, a Bush Fellowship, and an Artist Exploration Fund grant from Arts International. Her work is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Dance Project, and the Japan Foundation, and it has been commissioned by Zenon Dance Company, the University of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the American Composer’s Forum. Ranee and co-Artistic Director Aparna Ramaswamy were named the 2011 “Artist of the Year” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Born in India and raised in the United States, Aparna Ramaswamy is a protégé of Valli. Described as “a marvel of buoyant agility and sculptural clarity” (Dance Magazine), “thrillingly three-dimensional,” and “an enchantingly beautiful dancer,” (The New York Times), Aparna has been featured at prestigious venues throughout the United States and abroad, both as a soloist and as principal dancer with Ragamala. She has been awarded several honors, including two McKnight Artist Fellowships, a Bush Fellowship, an Arts and Religion grant funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, two Jerome Foundation Travel Study Grants, an Artist Exploration Fund grant from Arts International, the Lakshmi Vishwanathan Endowment Prize from Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India), and the Sage Award for Best Dancer (Minneapolis). Aparna’s work is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Dance Project, and the Japan Foundation, and it has been commissioned by the American Composer’s Forum, the Walker Art Center and the Southern Theater. In 2010, she was the first Bharatanatyam artist to be selected as one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine.

Bharatanatyam is a dynamic, evolving dance tradition, and it’s an evocative language in which the dancer who has mastered and internalized the idiom can write her personal dance-poetry. The dance is never meant to be just entertainment; it is also meant to enlighten the performer and the viewer through the underlying spirituality that forms its core. With a history that goes back more than 2,000 years to the ancient temples of southern India, Bharatanatyam has come down through the centuries integrating elements of music, theater, poetry, sculpture and literature. This multidimensional art offers an infinite scope for understanding and exploring the body, mind and spirit. While the vocabulary of Bharatanatyam is highly structured, the beauty, vitality, stunning physicality and emotional depth of the form offer infinite freedom for self-expression. It is these qualities that have allowed the form to survive through the years as a tradition that has the potential to convey both timeless themes and contemporary issues.

The 2011-2012 Lakewood Cultural Center Presents season is generously supported by theScientific and Cultural Facilities District (SCFD), with appreciation to the citizens of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, Colorado Creative Industries, to promote, support and expand the creative industries that drive Colorado’s economy, Sheraton Denver West and the Denver Post Community, improving and enriching the lives of those in our community.