Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival's Doris Duke Theater - Ragamala Dance Company's Written in Water

Concept/Choreography by Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy Compositions by Prema Ramamurthy and Amir ElSaffar Dancers: Ranee Ramaswamy, Aparna Ramaswamy, Ashwini Ramaswamy, Tamara Nadel, Jessica Fiala Orchestra: Amir Elsaffar (vocals, santur, trumpet), Preethy Mahesh (vocals), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Rajna Swaminathan (mridangam), Kasi Aysola (nattuvangam, vocal percussion) Conceived and choreographed by Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, Written in Water explores the universal paradigm of a seeker on a journey to connect the human with the transcendent and reveal mysteries within the self. In this large-scale, multimedia dance work, dancers and musicians move freely between composition and improvisation, and activate the space by negotiating snakes and ladders--representing the heights of ecstasy and depths of longing. Forging new artistic paradigms, Ragamala has commissioned a score from Carnatic composer Prema Ramamurthy and Iraqi-American composer/musician Amir ElSaffar -- who leads a live, 5-person musical ensemble with a distinct alchemy of Iraqi, jazz, and South Indian instruments. The work unfolds amidst lush images of paintings commissioned from visual artist V. Keshav (Chennai, India), projected on the stage floor and upstage scrim.