Along with her fellow musicians and composers, 25-26 CER Artist Preethi Ramaprasad shares her process of creating “Love Language,” a piece on love rooted in the Bharatanatyam idiom, through a lecture-demonstration style performance. Drawing on the compositional format known as the varnam, which often elaborates on erotic love, Preethi asks what it would look like if a varnam focused on a protagonist who lives far from home.  Inspired by her parents’ story of meeting in New York alongside other immigrant interviews, set to the tunes of the iconic Freddie Mercury, Bay Area’s own Sruti Sarathy, the mystic poet Kabir, and more, “Love Language” aims to ask what Bharatanatyam can do through its narrative structures and dramatic tools. 

Dance/Choreography: Preethi Ramaprasad

Musicians: Ananya Ashok, Vikram Raghukumar, Umesh Venkatesan, Aditya Iswara  

ABOUT THE ARTIST

PREETHI RAMAPRASAD is a dancer, curator, musician, and researcher. Ramaprasad has a doctorate in Critical Dance Studies from UC Riverside. Her research focuses on representation and the performance of myth among transnational Bharatanatyam practitioners. Her journey teaching and performing Bharatanatyam has led to artistic community-building endeavors across India, Europe, and the United States. Ramaprasad’s choreography seeks to ask how Bharatanatyam can address contemporary politics, especially through theatrical and expressive techniques of the form.  She co-runs the Varnam Salon, When Eyes Speak Choreography Festival, and Performing Voices of Bhakti, which aim to create safe spaces to share South Asian expression in the diaspora. More at preethiramaprasad.com. 

ABOUT THE VENUE + ACCESSIBILITY

Studio 210 is a 7-10 minute walk from the 24^th St BART Station. The venue is wheelchair accessible.

For any additional access requests, please email admin@bridgelivearts.org by August 20th (one week before the event).

Photo courtesy of the artist.