by Rohan Preston
Minneapolis
StarTribune Staff Writer
September, 2000
excerpts from review
In the finale of “Pudisu,” an explosion of new choreography at tbe Southern Theater, three ankle-belled Indian classical dancers weave among three tap dancers. Their sharp-sounding bells and crisp cadences combine to create a vivid soundscape as the two dance styles merge and separate, complemented by hand gestures and arched brows.
This suite, “Bharata-TAP-yam,” culminates an exhilarating evening of south Indian dances at the newly refurbished Southern.
The program is seeded by Ranee Ramaswamy, founder of the Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, who joined daughters Aparna and Ashwini plus tap maestro Joe Chvala and two hoofers from his Flying Foot Forum for this mix of percussive movements.
Ramaswamy’s Ragamala continues to offer some of the most exciting dance concerts in the Twin Cities, pushing the envelope not by doing esoteric material but by opening Bharatanatyam, a 2,500-year-old dance style, to contemporary influences.
For “Pudisu” (“New”), she invited a bevy of dancers and choreographers-Kats Fukasawa, Tamara Nadel, Chvala, her daughter Ashwini, even belly-dancer Kendall Lakoduk-who, in turn, used a soundtrack of mostly 20th-century music. The sensual bass of Charles Mingus’ “II B.S.” gives way to the blues yearnings of Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind;” the percussive scat of Zap Mama slips into Moby’s “Run On,” a gospel jubilee song set to a hip-hop beat.
The score also includes compositions by Bach, the Klezmatics and Astor Piazzola, whose “Tanguedia III” is used as a soundtrack for what has to be a first: a Bharatanatyam tango, choreographed by Fukasawa, who dances it with the technically superb Aparna Ramaswamy.
Later, with his slicked-back hair, courting-crane head movements and sleeveless Count Dracula cape, Fukasawa is at once beatific and rakish in “The Dark Side of Nungumbakkam High Road.” It’s the last of three works he contributes to the evening’s 10.
Few of the composers and songwriters could have imagined that their works would so vividly describe the communicative hand gestures, telling glances and punctuating foot movements that define Bharatanatyam.
Fewer still might have imagined a Bharatanatyam move to hambone body percussion. But the show rarely suffers from its artful collapsing of time, cultures and styles. Ashwini’s spunky suite, “Kwik-E-Mart Gospel,” is among many delights.
By the broadness of her ideas, Ramaswamy shows how a classic form can be at once elastic, contemporary and thrilling.
