Ragamala Dance Company's Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim by Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy will be presented on July 6 & 7, 2022 at 7:30pm at the American Dance Festival, Reynolds Industries Theatre at Duke, Durham, NC. Tickets start at $25 and are available at americandancefestival.org/event/ragamala-dance-company/2022-07-06. This production is commissioned by American Dance Festival.

"[the] universal and visual atmosphere is intoxicating, no matter your background...a wholly magnificent piece of live art." – The Chicago Tribune 

Rooted in the expansive South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam, Ragamala Dance Company manifests a kindred relationship between the ancient and the contemporary. In this evening-length performance, eleven dancers conjure a realm where time is suspended and humans merge with the divine. Award-winning creators Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy imagine a metaphorical crossing place that enters into a ritualistic world of immortality, evoking the birth-death-rebirth continuum in Hindu thought to honor immigrant experiences of life and death in the diaspora. Fires of Varanasi evokes the spiritually electric city, described by mother and daughter in conversation with essayist Pico Iyer as a metaphor for the interconnectedness of life and death. The work features an original, recorded score and the lighting designs of French scenic and lightning designer Willy Cessa.