Performing Arts Series: Ashwini Ramaswamy's 'Let the Crows Come'
A refraction of classical South Indian music and dance through the lens of contemporary and African Diasporic dance techniques and Gaga, "Let the Crows Come" explores how memory and homeland channel guidance and dislocation.
Ashwini Ramaswamy's "Let the Crows Come"
Saturday | Oct. 2 | 8 p.m. | McPherson Auditorium, Goodhart Hall
Free for Tri-Co: Reserve online. Walk-ups welcome!
Off-campus guests: Purchase tickets online or by phone at 610-526-5300. Walk-up purchases welcome!
*All audience members and event staff must wear appropriate masks and vaccines are recommended for off-campus guests. View the Arts at Bryn Mawr Live Event Health and Safety Policies for more information.
Evoking mythography and ancestry, Ashwini Ramaswamy's "Let the Crows Come" uses the metaphor of crows as messengers for the living and guides for the departed.
"Let the Crows Come" evolved from a simple idea; when a DJ remixes a song, its essence is maintained while its trajectory is changed. To Minneapolis-based dancer/choreographer Ashwini Ramaswamy—a founding company member of the internationally renowned Ragamala Dance Company—this mutation is reminiscent of being a second-generation immigrant—a person that has been culturally remixed to fit into multiple places at once.
“As an artist of diaspora, I am a cultural carrier with an instinct to move within ancestral patterns,” explains Ramaswamy. “There is a continuum between what we perceive as real/tangible and what we accept as unknown/unknowable; this gravitation between the human, the natural, and the metaphysical—which are forever engaged in sacred movement—is a focal point in my work.”
In a series of three dance solos, Ramaswamy (Bharatanatyam technique) and fellow Minneapolis-based dancers Alanna Morris-Van Tassel (contemporary/African Diasporic technique) and Berit Ahlgren (Gaga technique) deconstruct and recontextualize the South Indian classical dance form Bharatanatyam, recalling a memory that has a shared origin but is remembered differently from person to person. The dancers’ use of imagery and narrative is accompanied by the soaring voice of Carnatic singer Roopa Mahadevan and two other classical Indian musicians — percussionist Rohan Krishnamurthy and violinist Arun Ramamurthy — performing an original score by Prema Ramamurthy. Concurrently, cellist Brent Arnold extrapolates from the classical Carnatic (South Indian) score, utilizing centuries-old compositional structures as the point of departure for sonic explorations — co-created with composer/DJ Jace Clayton (DJ/rupture) — that incorporate pop music and electronic sounds.
Ashwini Ramaswamy “weaves together, both fearfully and joyfully, the human and the divine. There is a continual flow of energy coursing through her limbs.” —The New York Times
Learn more about Ashwini Ramaswamy.
Free for Tri-Co: Reserve online.
Off-campus guests: Purchase tickets online or at 610-526-5300.
Contact the Arts Office at reservations@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-5300 for information or assistance.
Residency Outreach Events:
Dance Workshop with Berit Ahlgren
Fri | Oct 1 | 2:40 - 4 PM | Pem Dance Studio
Free and open to the Bi-Co community.
Join the Hip Hop Lineages class for a workshop on Gaga techniques — improvising movements based on somatic experience and imagery — and Ahlgren's own hybrid performance practices and collaborations with Ashwini Ramaswmay for Let the Crows Come. No expertise in forms required to participate.
Music Workshop with Carnatic singer Roopa Mahadevan, percussionist Rohan Krishnamurthy, violinist Arun Ramamurthy
Fri | Oct 1 | 5-6 PM | Music Room, Goodhart Hall
Free and open to the Bi-Co community.
An introduction to classical Indian music forms with a discussion of the collaborative process for Let the Crows Come, which uses centuries-old compositional structures as the point of departure for sonic explorations — co-created with composer/DJ Jace Clayton (DJ/rupture) — that incorporate pop music and electronic sounds.
Vaccines
The College recommends audience members be fully vaccinated and has implemented COVID-19 vaccine requirements for faculty and staff and students.
Masks
All audience members and event staff must wear appropriate masks. View the Arts at Bryn Mawr Live Event Health and Safety Policies for more information.
For more information, contact the Arts Office at reservations@brynmawr.edu or 610-526-5300.
About Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series
Since 1984 the Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series has presented great artists and performances to audiences in the Philadelphia area, creating an environment in which the value of the arts is recognized and celebrated. Providing talks and workshops free to the public to help develop arts awareness and literacy, the Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series has partnered in recent seasons with such organizations as the Baryshnikov Arts Center, Bryn Mawr Film Institute, and the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival. The Series has presented performances by such diverse luminaries and visionaries as Meredith Monk, John Waters, Il Fondamento, the Khmer Arts Ensemble of Cambodia, and Urban Bush Women.
Ashwini Ramaswamy “weaves together, both fearfully and joyfully, the human and the divine. There is a continual flow of energy coursing through her limbs.” —The New York Times