Ashwini Ramaswamy's Let the Crows Come

Plimpton Shattuck Black Box

Evoking potent symbolism of the crow as a messenger between life and death, transcending space and time, Ashwini Ramaswamy explores memory, dislocation, ancestry, and more in the Boston premiere of Let the Crows Come

Ramaswamy, who comes from a family of Bharatanatyam teachers and practitioners, remixes and recontextualizes this Indian classical dance alongside two other artists representing seemingly disparate techniques and traditions. Alanna Morris performs with an Afro-Caribbean Modern technique, and Berit Ahlgren performs using the Gaga technique developed by Ohad Naharin.  

Together, the three women illustrate the transmission of memory and ideas from person to person, generation to generation, and culture to culture: movements from Bharatanatyam dance are passed between them, transformed by each dancer’s training and artistic interpretations.  

Profoundly personal and universally resonant, Let the Crows Come is “a fascinating, beautifully developed exchange of dance styles,” according to The Washington Post.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20: You’re invited!

Join us at the Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre for a post-performance reception and artist conversation on Saturday afternoon. Open to all Saturday-afternoon ticket holders.

“Even as the dancers matched and echoed one another’s arms and feet, their interpretations were, at times, wildly—and certainly stylistically—different. Yet they were all capable of holding the stage with a similar intensity, as if they were dance spirits, one shadowing the other. And the music was just as important. For her experiment, Ramaswamy was drawn to how a D.J. remixes a song. How does a piece of music, or a dance solo, change and shift to reveal different facets over time? And how can that honor different generations? ”

The New York Times, critic’s pick

NEC’s Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre Venue Information

The 2023/24 Dance Series is generously supported by
Leslie & Howard ApplebyStephanie L. Brown Foundation, and Royal Little Family Foundation, with additional support provided by Cynthia & John S. Reed Foundation.

The presentation of “Let the Crows Come” was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Foundation and the Mellon Foundation.

Additional support provided by the Amy Lam Fund for Creative Performance.

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