Carleton’s Regional Carls Program

The Carleton College Twin Cities Club and
The Multicultural Alumni Network are hosting

SACRED ARTS: Conversations and Demonstrations
by Ragamala Dance

Saturday, September 17, 2011, 3-5 p.m.

The Cowles Center for Dance and Performing Arts
528 Hennepin Ave, downtown Minneapolis

Enjoy an inside look at Minnesota’s new flagship center for dance, The Cowles Center for Dance and Performing Arts! Ragamala Dance, one of the premiere dance companies in the Twin Cities, will be the inaugural company at the Cowles Center, which will be unveiled this September.

“Ragamala shows how Indian forms can provide some of the most transcendent experiences that dance has to offer. This is an excellent company; Ms. [Aparna] Ramaswamy is an enchantingly beautiful dancer.” (The New York Times)

Ragamala Artistic Director and principal dancer, Aparna Ramaswamy ’97, and Publicity Director and company dancer, Ashwini Ramaswamy ’03, invite Carleton alumni, parents, family, and friends for a special preview of the theater and an inside look at Ragamala’s world premiere production, Sacred Earth. Attendees of this free event will receive $5 off tickets to the performance, which runs from September 23-25.

SACRED ARTS: SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
3:00 – 4:00pm:  Lecture and demonstration of Warli Art and insight into the tribal life of visiting artist Anil Chaitya Vangad of Ganjad Village, India, as well as a first look at the lobby display of Warli art and kolam designs.  Ragamala’s Artistic Directors Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy will talk about the inspirations and philosophies behind Sacred Earth

4:00 – 4:30pm:  Concert by Ragamala’s classical south Indian orchestra—violin, mridangam (south Indian drum) and vocals.

4:30-5:00pm:  Tour of the Cowles Center, including backstage, rehearsal studios, and dressing rooms, to get a full picture of this exciting new epicenter for dance and performing arts

ABOUT SACRED EARTH

The indigenous Warli people of western India revere the land and uphold a deep belief in the balance between themselves and the earth. Using their everyday landscape as inspiration, they craft dynamic wall paintings that depict a life lived in purposeful coexistence with nature, using art to find the spiritual in the everyday.

In south India, kolams are drawn each morning with rice flour as conscious offerings to Mother Earth. These daily rituals create a sacred space and become a link between the intimate home and the vastness of the outside world. Gone in the space of a day, kolams are a graceful reminder of beauty’s impermanence.

Featuring a live south Indian orchestra, against a backdrop of large-scale original Warli paintings by Warli folk artist Anil Chaitya Vangad, and on a stage covered with kolams, each dancer gives physical form to these visual art traditions and honors their place in the contemporary world. Sacred Earth celebrates body and nature, soul and Earth, and the divine balance found in the universe’s continuous pulse.

Questions?  Contact Ashwini Ramaswamy ’03, or the Alumni Relations Office at 800-729-2586 or alumni-office@carleton.edu.