Ashwini Ramaswamy, founding company member of the internationally renowned Ragamala Dance Company and dancer/choreographer/project director for Let the Crows Come, is leading a master dance class workshop at Coffee Street Fitness & Dance Studio on Thursday, March 5 at 4 p.m. Registration is $5 per person and the workshop is available to persons age 5 and up. No dance experience necessary. Space is limited.

Participants will have fun learning from Ashwini about her Bharatanatyam (south Indian classical dance) background, focusing on the rhythmic, gestural, and expressive vocabularies that are the underpinnings of the form! In addition to active dance instruction, the class explores concepts of lineage, aesthetics, the close relationship between music and movement in Bharatanatyam, the evolution of culturally rooted art forms, and their ongoing relevance in the 21st century. Lastly, learn first hand about the development process for Let the Crows Come and how Bharatanatyam was deconstructed, extrapolated, and retrograded into unique movement paradigms by the other dancers she selected to collaborate with.

This workshop is happening in conjunction with the performance of Ashwini’s Let the Crows Come, a series of trios and solos by dancers of three distinct artistic lineages, at the historic St. Mane Theatre in downtown Lanesboro on Friday, March 6th at 7:30 p.m. Click here to learn more and purchase tickets to the evening performance. A second master dance class workshop with Alanna Morris-Van Tassel, dancer/choreographer in Let the Crows Come and a longtime leading performer with TU Dance, is taking place on Friday, March 6 at 4:00 p.m. Click here for details on Alanna’s class.

As an independent choreographer and Choreographic Associate with Ragamala Dance Company, Ashwini Ramaswamy‘s (Minneapolis, MN) work references ancient myths and ritualistic practices, global literature and poetry, and the mixed media contemporary culture she has absorbed for 35 years, drawing from myriad influences to express a personal identity that has universal resonance. She is a McKnight Artist Fellow for Dance, as well as the recipient of three Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative grants, a Metropolitan Regional Arts Council Next Step Fund grant, and two Jerome Foundation Travel Study Grants. Ashwini currently has the honor of studying under Bharatanatyam legend Alarmél Valli, one of the greatest living masters of the form.