Marie Rader Series Brings World-Class Bharatanatyam with Live Music to Rowan with Ragamala Dance Company: Sacred Earth

(GLASSBORO, NJ) – As its first show of 2026, Marie Rader Series presents Ragamala Dance Company: Sacred Earth, Saturday, January 31 at Pfleeger Concert Hall. Performed with live music, Ragamala’s stunning Bharatanatyam dancers create a sacred space to honor the divinity in the natural world. Showtime is 7:30pm.

Inspired by the ephemeral arts of kolam rice flour ritual, indigenous Warli painting, and the Tamil Sangam literature of India, Sacred Earth is co-Artistic Directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy’s singular vision of the beautiful, fragile relationship between nature and man.

Tickets are $35 and available for purchase online. Pfleeger Concert Hall is located on North Campus Drive in Glassboro, New Jersey.

Surrounding the public performance Ragamala Dance Company will offer a free virtual pre-performance lunch & learn as well as an in-person post-show artist chat. The Carnatic music ensemble featured in the performance will also offer a lecture-demonstration to Rowan music students, as well as instrument-specific introductory workshops to the complex, foundational vocabulary of this traditional South Indian style of music.

Choreographers Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy worked closely with composer Prema Ramamurthy and this Carnatic ensemble to develop the musical score for Sacred Earth, shaping melodic modes, microtonal variations, and complex rhythms to match the choreography’s emotional tenor. Since its 2011 premiere, the work has evolved symbiotically with live music, deepening its spontaneity and resonance.

The January public presentation of Ragamala is the culmination of a year-long engagement that began in October 2025, when dancers Jothika Gorur and Sri Guntipally were featured guest artists of the 4th Annual Rowan Dance Festival. They led a lecture-demonstration for 60 local high school dancers, and performed a short piece on a shared bill with area dance studios and current Rowan students.

Marie Rader Series Artistic Director Debbie Shapiro says, “Ragamala Dance Company is hailed as a standard-bearer driven by their singular lineage of this ancient art form as well as their vision for its contemporary resonance throughout the United States. This presentation is an invitation to join together in learning from these artists, while also celebrating the diversity and beauty of South Jersey’s own Indian community.”

Thursday, January 29 from 9:00am – 3:00pm |  Full company rehearsal at DANCE! By Debra DiNote (208 E. Holly Ave., Sewell, NJ 08080)

Friday, January 30 from 12:30pm – 1:20pm | Carnatic Ensemble Lecture-demonstration for Rowan Students in Wilson Hall

Friday, January 30 from 1:30pm – 2:30pm | Arun Ramamurthy, violinist will lead a workshop with Rowan string students & Rohan Krishnamurthy will lead a workshop with Rowan percussion students in Wilson Hall

Friday, January 30 from 3:30pm – 10:00pm | tech rehearsal in Pfleeger Concert Hall

Because of the Marie Rader Series, arts lovers throughout New Jersey don’t have to travel to New York or Philadelphia. Focused on artistic integrity and inclusion, the series provides public presentations, community outreach, and coaching for students that reflect the innovation and quality consistent with Rowan University’s overall standards of high achievement and transformation. 

Concessions will be available for purchase at all performances. Pfleeger Concert Hall is a wheelchair accessible venue. For assistance contact Rowan University’s College of the Arts Box Office via [email protected] or 856-256-4545.

The series is made possible in part through generous support from the Henry M. Rowan Family Foundation via the Marie Rader Memorial Fund and through funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts.