Aparna Ramaswamy is the co-artistic director, choreographer, and principal dancer of Ragamala Dance based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Born in India and raised in the US, Aparna Ramaswamy is a protégé of legendary Bharatanatyam artist Alarmel Valli, one of India’s greatest living masters.

Ramaswamy 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). Ramaswamy’s work is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Dance Project, and the Japan Foundation, and has been commissioned by the American Composers’ Forum, the Walker Art Center, and the Southern Theater. In 2010, Ramaswamy was the first Bharatanatyam artist to be named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine.

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