Ragamala Dance Company to Return to The Joyce Theater With CHILDREN OF DHARMA

The Joyce Theater Foundation will welcome the return of Ragamala Dance Company, the soulful and imaginative South Indian Bharatanatyam troupe, in their latest full-length work, Children of Dharma. Created and performed by a mother, her daughters, and dancers highly skilled in traditional movement, the work will play The Joyce Theater for five performances only from January 8-12.

Artistic Directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, along with Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy, have led the charge in bringing the grace, rigor, poetry, and musicality of their South Indian Bharatanatyam dance lineage around the world for more than 30 years with Ragamala Dance Company. As with each carefully crafted piece, their latest evening-length work, Children of Dharma, centers South Indian embodied rituals in the immigrant experience—upholding dance as a spiritual practice that can inspire, heal, and transform. 

In the brief time between birth and death, every human desires to achieve fulfillment; this fulfillment is either in harmony or in disharmony with others. Through three central characters of the Hindu epic The Mahabharata, Children of Dharma ignites and dwells in the dilemmas and consequences exacted on and outside the ‘battlefield.’ This is the war within The Mahabharata and the self.

With scenic design by French artist Willy Cessa, this multidisciplinary experience incorporates lush visual imagery, an original recorded score, and poetic movement integrating intimate solos with powerful ensemble choreography performed by seven dancers. Children of Dharma invites us to contemplate our relationship with nature, with each other, and the enduring power of ancient wisdom to navigate contemporary questions of conscience.

Ragamala’s Joyce run is part of an 18-month New York City residency in partnership with the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts's Jerome Robbins Dance Division and other prestigious NYC partner organizations. Other events throughout the city include master classes, workshops, open rehearsals, receptions, work in public schools, and more through 2026.