Located in Minneapolis, MN, The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts opened in 2011. The Cowles Center building was once known as the Schubert Theater, a building that was moved to its present location in 1999. It was, at the time, the heaviest buildings every moved in the history of America. The Cowles family owned and ran a newspaper, magazine and information publishing business known as the Cowles Media Company. Sage Cowles (1925-2013) was a dancer, philanthropist, activist, and educator who toured as a guest artist in the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company’s production Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land, and earned a Lifetime Achievement “Ernie” Award from Dance/USA in 2004.
On November 20, 2021 at 7:30pm CT (5:30 PT) and November 21, 2021 at 2pm CT (12pm PT), The Cowles Center will present Let the Crows Come, a work by Minneapolis-based dancer/choreographer and founder of the internationally renowned Ragamala Dance Company, Ashwini Ramaswamy. The work uses the metaphor of crows as messengers for the living and guides for the departed. It is also Ramaswamy’s investigation of being a second-generation immigrant.
“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.”
Ashwini Ramaswamy in her “Let the Crows Come” – Photo by Jake Armour
Let the Crows Come includes a series of three solos featuring Ramaswamy (Bharatanatyam technique), fellow Minneapolis-based dancers Alanna Morris-Van Tassel (contemporary/African Diasporic technique) and Berit Ahlgren (Gaga technique). The three artists “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. ” – Michelle Tabnick PR
Cast of Ashwini Ramaswamy’s “Let the Crows Come” – Photo by Jayme Halbritter
Ramaswamy’s work makes use of imagery and narrative set to a commissioned original score that includes the voice of Carnatic singer Roopa Mahadevan and two other classical Indian musicians, percussionist Rohan Krishnamurthy and violinist Arun Ramamurthy. These amazing musicians perform an original piece by Prema Ramamurthy while cellist Brent Arnold simultaneously draws from the classical Carnatic (South Indian) score co-created with composer/DJ Jace Clayton (DJ/rupture).
“Let the Crows Come” – Photo by Ed Bock artwork by Anil Vangad
Let the Crows Come premiered in 2019 and was listed among the ‘Best performances of the year’ by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Minnpost, with City Pages citing Ashwini’s work as “illuminating Bharatanatyam’s future.”
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
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WHAT: The Cowles Center Presents Ashwini Ramaswamy’s Let the Crows Come – In-person and via Livestream.
WHEN: November 20, 2021 at 7:30pm CT (5:30 PT) and November 21, 2021 at 2pm CT (12pm PT).
WHERE: The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts – 528 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403
TICKETS: Livestream tickets are $20; in-person tickets are $25 (student/senior rate) and $30 (general admission); and each are available at thecowlescenter.org/let-the-crows-come.
To read more about Ashwini Ramaswamy, please visit her website.
For more information about the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts, click HERE.
By Jeff Slayton
Featured image: Ashwini Ramaswamy’s Let the Crows Come – Photo by Jake Armour
