John F. Welsh Auditorium, Natrona County High School
Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, Artistic Directors Sacred Earth, featuring soloist Aparna Ramaswamy
The indigenous Warli people of western India revere the land, where their shelters derive, their food is grown, their lives find bounty and harmony. From southern India come kolams, floor designs drawn by women with rice flour to create a sacred space every morning. Gone in the space of a day, a kolam’s geometric shapes are a reminder of beauty’s impermanence, and its perishable materials nourish birds and small creatures as a way to give back to the earth. Against a backdrop of paintings from the Warli folk artist Anil Chaitya Vangad, each dancer in Sacred Earth summons the spirituality of this earthly connection into tangible existence. Imbuing the graceful and dynamic dance form of Bharatanatyam with its own distinctive vision, Ragamala Dance, called “a transcendent experience” and “rapturous and profound” by The New York Times, conveys to audiences worldwide that Bharatanatyam is contemporary and distinctly current. Sacred Earth couples eternity and transience, body and nature, soul and Earth in a celebration of the divine balance found in the universe’s continuous pulse.
Additionally on April 15, there will be a Dance Master Class at 1:00 p.m. at 307 Dance Academy, as well as a Hands On Kolam demonstration at 3:00 p.m. at Nicolaysen Art Museum.
Co-Sponsored by KCWY-13, the Nicolaysen Art Museum, Town Square Media, The Bon Agency/The Des & Carrie Bennion Family, La Cocina, KWYF – the CW, and the Ramada Plaza. Partial funding is from the Wyoming Arts Council through the National Endowment for the Arts and the Wyoming State Legislature, the Western States Arts Federation, the Schneider Fund in the Wyoming Community Foundation, Natrona County School District No. 1, and the McMurry Foundation.
The presentation of Ragamala Dance was made possible by the MetLife Community Connections Fund of the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project. Major support for NDP is provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation with additional support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Boeing Company Charitable Trust.
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