Children of Dharma Family Series

Show run time: 60 minutes, no intermission. 

Audience members — both children and anyone who is a child at heart — are invited.

Ragamala Dance Company returns to the Harris Theater with a special PNC Family Series performance of Children of Dharma, a new work that explores the rippling effects that dharma (“right action”) can have across the world. Centering ancestral wisdom and creativity to contextualize the immigrant experience, Ragamala Dance Company continues to uphold dance as a spiritual practice that can inspire, heal, and transform communities.

Created by company founder and Co-Artistic Director Ranee Ramaswamy with her daughters, Executive Artistic Director Aparna Ramaswamy and Choreographic Associate Ashwini Ramaswamy, Children of Dharma asks important questions, exploring what we have done to our relationship with the natural world. In response to these questions, the power of ancient cultures is vitally relevant — to connect us to our ancestors, to harmonize, to heal, and to reaffirm the existence of beauty and truth. 

Children of Dharma begins with a solitary dancer emerging from the aftermath of conflict, a symbolic representation of the looming shadow of war. The choreography, influenced by movement traditions from India and the Hindu diaspora (South Indian Bharatanatyam and Khmer Cambodian dance), captures the allure of the gods and their power to entrance and entrap mortals. Set to an original recorded score, Children of Dharma integrates intimate solos with powerful ensemble choreography performed by seven dancers. The work reveals the with powerful ensemble choreography performed by seven dancers. The work reveals the power of an ancient epic to unearth some of the most enduring questions.