Aparna Ramaswamy is co-artistic director, choreographer, and principal dancer of Ragamala Dance, acclaimed as one of the Indian Diaspora’s leading dance ensembles. She is the protégé of legendary Bharatanatyam dancer and choreographer Alarmél Valli, known as one of India’s greatest living masters. Together with co-artistic director Ranee Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy sees the classical dance form of Bharatanatyam as a dynamic, living tradition with vast potential to spark a global conversation.
Ramaswamy’s work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, National Dance Project, MAP Fund, Japan Foundation, USArtists International, and a Joyce Award; commissioned by the Walker Art Center, and American Composers Forum; and toured extensively, highlighted by the American Dance Festival in Durham, NC; Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; Music Center in Los Angeles; CA, Krannert Center in Urbana, IL; Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland; Bali Arts Festival in Indonesia; and National Centre for Performing Arts in Mumbai, India.
Ramaswamy’s choreography and performance have been described as “a marvel of buoyant agility and sculptural clarity” (Dance Magazine), “thrillingly three-dimensional,” and “an enchantingly beautiful dancer,” (The New York Times). Among her many honors are three McKnight Fellowships in Dance and Choreography, a Bush Fellowship for Choreography, an Arts and Religion grant funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, two Jerome Foundation Travel Study Grants, an Artist Exploration Fund grant from Arts International, and two USArtists International grants from the MidAtlantic Arts Foundation. In 2010, Ramaswamy was the first Bharatanatyam dancer/choreographer to be named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,” and she and Ranee were jointly named “2011 Artist of the Year” by the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In the current year, her solo work “Sannidhi” will tour extensively, in part with Tour Support from the National Dance Project. Most recently, she and Ranee were selected for a development residency at the Maggie Allesee National Center for Choreography (MANCC). Ramaswamy has a BA in International Relations from Carleton College.
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