Ashwini Ramaswamy (lead choreographer/dancer) has spent over 30 years studying Bharatanatyam from award-winning bharatanatyam choreographers Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy (her mother and sister). The New York Times describes Ashwini as “weaving together, both fearfully and joyfully, the human and the divine…there is a continual flow of energy coursing through her limbs.”
As a founding member of Ranee and Aparna’s Ragamala Dance Company, she has toured extensively, performing throughout the U.S. and in Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, the U.K, and India, highlighted by performances at The Joyce Theater and Lincoln Center Out of Doors (New York, NY), the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), American Dance Festival (Durham, N.C.), The Soraya (Los Angeles, CA), Harris Theater (Chicago,IL), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Bali Arts Festival, National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai, India), and Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India).
As a soloist, she has performed at the Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.), the Ritz Theater (Minneapolis, MN), Northrop (Minneapolis, MN), Carleton College (Northfield, MN), the Drive East Festival, and Erasing Borders Festival (New York, NY), and her choreographic work has been presented by Augsburg College, the Red Eye Theater, Macalester College, The O’Shaughnessy and the Cowles Center (The Twin Cities, MN); Triskelion Arts, The Joyce Theater, and Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York, NY), The Yard (Martha's Vineyard, MA), Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA), The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (Scottsdale, AZ), UAlbany Presents (Albany, NY,) and The Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K),
Ashwini has received commissions from the Liquid Music Series, American Dance Platform, Macalester College, and Great Northern Festival; residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC), UNC Chapel Hill (North Carolina), Kohler Arts Center (Sheyboygan, WI), the National Center for Choreography (Akron, OH), and the Bogliasco Foundation (Bogliasco, Italy); support from the National Dance Project, MAP Fund, USArtists International, Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, South Asian Arts Resiliency Fund, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowships for Dance and Choreography. Her choreography has been listed among the ‘Best of the Year’ in The Washington Post, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnpost, and Big Dance Town. As a 2019 City Pages ‘Artist of the Year, Ashwini's work was highlighted for ‘illuminating Bharatanatyam’s future.”
Her current project, Invisible Cities, will premiere in 2023.
