About Ashwini

ASHWINI RAMASWAMY has spent over 30 years studying Bharatanatyam from award-winning artists Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy (her mother and sister), and their guru, the legendary Padma Bhushan Smt. Alarmél Valli of Chennai, India since 2011. Her upbringing in both India and the U.S. has encouraged a hybridic aesthetic and vision, and her choreography has been heralded by The New York Times for “creating space, not just for more generations but more ways of thinking” and listed among the “Best of the Year” in The Washington Post. Ashwini is committed to maintaining the rigor, physicality, humanity, and authenticity embedded in her Bharatanatyam lineage while forming a personal vision for collaborative, multidisciplinary performance experiences. 

As a founding member of Ranee and Aparna’s Ragamala Dance Company, she has toured extensively, performing throughout the U.S. and in Russia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, the U.K, and India, highlighted by performances at The Joyce Theater and Lincoln Center Out of Doors (New York, NY), the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), American Dance Festival (Durham, N.C.), The Soraya (Los Angeles, CA), Harris Theater (Chicago,IL), Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Bali Arts Festival, National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai, India), and Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India).

As a soloist, she has performed at the Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.), the Ritz Theater (Minneapolis, MN), Northrop (Minneapolis, MN), Carleton College (Northfield, MN), the Drive East Festival, and Erasing Borders Festival (New York, NY), and her choreographic work has been presented by Augsburg College, the Red Eye Theater, Macalester College, The O’Shaughnessy and the Cowles Center (The Twin Cities, MN); Triskelion Arts, The Joyce Theater, and Baryshnikov Arts Center (New York, NY), The Yard (Martha's Vineyard, MA), Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA), The Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts (Scottsdale, AZ), UAlbany Presents (Albany, NY,) The Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K), Modlin Center for the Arts (Richmond, VA), The Charles B. Wang Center (Stonybrook, NY), and BroadStage (Santa Monica, CA), among others.

Ashwini has received commissions from the Liquid Music Series, American Dance Platform, Macalester College, Great Northern Festival, and Santa Monica College; residencies at the Baryshnikov Arts Center (NYC), UNC Chapel Hill (North Carolina), Kohler Arts Center (Sheyboygan, WI), the National Center for Choreography (Akron, OH), and the Bogliasco Foundation (Bogliasco, Italy), and the Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France); and support from the National Dance Project, MAP Fund, USArtists International, National Performance Network (NPN); Minnesota State Arts Board, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, South Asian Arts Resiliency Fund, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, and McKnight Foundation Artist Fellowships for Dance and Choreography, among others.