Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy's Ragamala Dance Company, now in its 30th year, presents Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim at the 45th Annual Soorya Festival on October 11-17, 2022 at various locations in Kerala, India. This six-performance engagement is part of Ragamala's 22/23 Season, which culminates with a 30th Anniversary Gala Celebration in July 2023. For more information, visit .ragamaladance.org/upcoming

Rooted in the expansive South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam, Ragamala Dance Company manifests a kindred relationship between the ancient and the contemporary. In their latest evening-length performance, Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim, 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.

The reigning deity of Varanasi is Shiva, from whose locks flows the Ganga. He is celebrated, invoked, and worshipped in this sacred city, where His dance transforms the desolation of the cremation ground into a wondrous experience of bhakti.