Ragamala Dance Company to Kick Off The Joyce's Fall '21/Winter '22 Season
Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim uses the traditional South Indian dance form Bharatanatyam to connect ancient rituals to modern day experience.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Sep. 10, 2021
The Joyce Theater Foundation will welcome audiences back to its legendary Chelsea home with Ragamala Dance Company's newest evening-length work, Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim. The New York premiere, which uses the traditional South Indian dance form Bharatanatyam to connect ancient rituals to modern day experience, will open the Fall 2021/Winter 2022 season at The Joyce Theater with performances from September 22-26. Tickets, ranging in price from $10-$55, can be purchased at www.Joyce.org, or by calling JoyceCharge at 212-242-0800. Please note: ticket prices are subject to change. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue at West 19th Street.
For more information and to read about The Joyce Theater's detailed health and safety protocols, including required face-coverings and proof-of-vaccination policies, please visit www.Joyce.org.
Following eighteen months of innovative online programming, The Joyce Theater will open its doors to live audiences once more with Fires of Varanasi: Dance of the Eternal Pilgrim - created by mother/daughter Artistic Directors Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy - the latest full-length work from their Ragamala Dance Company. Co-commissioned by The Kennedy Center, the piece suspends time and reality, with eleven dancers creating a metaphorical realm where humans and the divine are one. Inspired by the death of the choreographers' father/grandfather while away from his Indian homeland, Fires of Varanasi merges the traditional Hindu belief of life and death as part of an integrated whole with the experience of immigrants in the contemporary diaspora. Dancers use the Bharatanatyam form to embody the transformation of the soul after death, leaving behind the mundanity of everyday life and entering into a world of immortality. Featuring scenic and lighting design by Willy Cessa, audiences will be transported to the banks of the Ganges in the sacred city of Varanasi in this theatrical reimagining of ancient rituals.
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