Ragamala dancers. Photo: Ed Bock, courtesy of ADF.

“Ragamala, a South Indian Bharatanatyam dance company from Minneapolis, turns the Reynolds Theater stage into a mesmerizing village in Sacred Earth, for the company’s first American Dance Festival  appearance. The six female dancers are accompanied by a four-person orchestra, which includes a rich-voiced Carnatic singer. The beautiful program will repeat on July 11 and 12.

Ragamala was founded 20 years ago by Ranee Ramaswamy (she and daughter Aparna are co-artistic directors and soloists; another daughter Ashwini is also a soloist), but the ancient forms of Bharatanatyam dance, with its expansive language of gesture and movement, developed in south India over centuries before the Indian diaspora cast it up in such an unlikely new home as Minnesota.”

GO HERE TO READ THE FULL REVIEW, PUBLISHED 7/11/12, ON CLASSICAL VOICE OF NORTH CAROLINA.

Ragamala Dance company. Photo: Hub Wilson, courtesy of ADF.