RAMAA BHARADVAJ - Background Information

Ramaa Bharadvaj has come to be regarded not only as a distinguished dancer, teacher and choreographer, but also a writer and dance activist of distinction. Her training comes from legendary gurus, Vazhuvoor Ramaiah Pillai and Kamala, (Bharatanatyam), Vempatti Chinna Satyam (Kuchipudi) and Dr. T.N. Ramachandran (dance theory).

As the Director of Angahara Ensemble, she has choreographed 6 productions including the critically acclaimed “Panchatantra - Animal Fables of India” and over 70 individual dances and collaborative works.

Her works have been telecast by KCET (PBS affiliate) in California.

Her work has prompted the Los Angeles Times dance critic Sasha Anawalt to write:

“She was stunning, truly the most beguiling, evocative and articulate Indian dancer of real stature I had ever seen in Los Angeles. She possesses the divine.”

She is the first and only Indian dancer to win multiple Lester Horton Dance Awards in Los Angeles for performance and choreography. In June 2000, she became the first Indian dancer in over 45 years to be featured on the cover of Dance Magazine, the world’s most prestigious dance publication. In 2003 she was selected as Master Artist of California by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. She was one of 11 recipients selected by the California Arts Council to receive its Director's Award for 2003. This prestigious annual award recognizes outstanding leaders in the California arts field for their extraordinary commitment to, and dedicated support for the arts in our state and is given to those who embody the highest commitment to the arts in California. She is also the recipient of the Durfee Foundation grant and L. A. Treasures Award for 2005.

She is a special correspondent for Narthaki-On-Line, an award winning web-magazine on Indian dance, and SRUTI, India’s premier dance/music magazine. Her dance commentaries have been published by the Congress on Research in Dance, New York Foundation for the Arts, Dance Insider magazine, Folkworks Magazine, India Currents, India Journal, National edition of Indian Express, India, and PULSE, the largest South-Asian dance magazine in UK. In 1998, she was invited by the Society of Dance History Scholars to present a paper at their conference.

Ramaa Bharadvaj

She is the recipient of grants from the California Arts Council, Fund for Folk Culture and Alliance for California Traditional Artists, Durfee Foundation, Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, California Traditional Music Society and Ford Foundation. She has served on the Board of Directors of Arts Orange County, California Arts Advocates and Dance Resource Center of Los Angeles and as a dance panelist for the California Arts Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

She is currently on the dance faculty at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

A tireless advocate of multicultural education, Ramaa has taught at:

American College Dance Festival,

Art Center College of Design

California Arts Council's Arts Conference at Asilomar

California Institute of Arts,

Cal Poly Pomona

Cal State Long Beach,

Los Angeles County High School for the Arts

Loyola Marymount University,

Moorpark College

Mt San Antonio College,

Mt. San Jacinto College,

Pomona College,

Riverside Community College,

Scripps College,

Southern California Tap Festival,

U. C. Berkeley

U. C. Irvine

U. C. L. A.

27^th Annual Dance & Movement Workshop.

On the cover of Dance Magazine

She has presented outreach programs to thousands of inner city students through the Education Divisions of Luckman Theater, Carpenter Center for Performing Arts, San Diego Dance Alliance, Orange Coast College Performing Series and Inner City Arts.

INTERVIEWS - Ramaa speaks openly about her perceptions of the dance world.

2008: Carnatic Darbar - http://www.carnaticdarbar.com/interviews_ramaa.htm

2002: Narthaki-On-Line - http://www.narthaki.com/info/intervw/intrvw45.html

Judy Mitoma, the director of the Center for Intercultural Performances at UCLA described Ramaa as follows for an article in the Los Angeles Times. “Just as Twyla Tharp shocked people by combining ballet and pop culture, Ramaa is courageous in not restricting herself to pre-determined categories. She is dedicated to tradition and respectful of what it represents. Still she is also a contemporary soul engaged creatively and politically with what’s happening in the world.” (Los Angeles Times, July 2000)

True to this description Ramaa speaks with conviction about how she perceives herself as a dancer.

Today, I see myself not just as a dancer narrating the stories of the Gods, but as a mentor as well. I see myself as a leader capable of creating change in the society through my art. There is a story from the 16^th century dance history of India that inspires me. Once as a group of Kuchipudi performers was traveling to perform in the court of king Immadi Narasa Nayak, they rested in the village of Siddhavatam. They witnessed the sufferings of the people at the hands of the local chieftain. When they reached the king’s court, they enacted a dramatized version of the chieftain’s methods of torture. An enquiry followed and the chieftain was beheaded. Such concepts exhilarate me, for I realize that every time I dance, teach or create I have the capacity to make a change in similar fashion. Since we, as artists, are the voice of the community in which we live, we must not stop with just presenting our art; We must constantly represent it both artistically and politically.

I am reminded of Archibald MacLeish’s quote, “what humanity needs is not the creation of new worlds but the recreation in terms of human comprehension of the world we have, and it is for this reason that arts go on from generation to generation.” It is also for the same reason that artists have the obligation to fiercely guard their freedom to create. No one has the right to deny or take away that freedom. Otherwise there is a danger of us repeating the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia. My favorite quote was a personal advice from one of my dearest friends and a great dancer of our times – Nala Najan who said to me:

“Don’t let anyone quote the Natya Sastra to you or tell you how you should dance or what you should dance about. It is you the dancer who creates the dance. The Gods might have inspired it, but you are the living tradition. Without the human body there would be no dance, no Sastra. You are the Natya Sastra. You are Siva.”

For a tradition to continue, new energy must constantly offer the nourishment of new experience and small revelations. I hope I will continue to be energized and inspired by life around me to create new collaborations and to explore new artistic possibilities and keep my tradition alive through growth and change.