Performers
For immigrants, love is an indulgence. Bharatanatyam has long told stories of romance, but Love Language asks a different question: how does the beloved heroine look when she is far from the home she knows?
The work pays homage to the Bharatanatyam repertoire, drawing on stories of immigrant belonging to explore how people lean on one another after building new lives in an unfamiliar world: a shared meal, a borrowed hobby, another person’s version of home slowly becoming one’s own.
Built on the varnam, the Bharatanatyam and Carnatic framework long considered the form’s most demanding piece, the performance carries a story arc as complicated as distance itself. Hereditary dancers in South India, the form’s progenitors, most often explored romantic love through the varnam. “Love Language” nods to that tradition while filling a gap rarely addressed within it: the search for love and commonality in a foreign land, as Indian Americans.
What can Bharatanatyam be, in a context it was never built for?
Credits:
Vocal: S Adityanarayanan
Violin: TV Sukanya
Nattuvangam: Priya Murle
Mridangam: Sarvesh Karthik
Lights: Keerthi Kumar
This performance is supported by YoungArts Fellowship and produced by Shreya Nagarajan Singh Arts Development Consultancy (SNS).
In collaboration with:
Supported by:
Performers
Preethi Ramaprasad
Preethi Ramaprasad is a dancer, curator, musician, and researcher. A Bharatanatyam disciple of Prof. Sudharani Raghupathy and Carnatic music disciple of Padma Srinivasan, she has led artistic community-building efforts across India, Europe, and the United States, co-running the When Eyes Speak Choreography Festival, The Varnam Salon, and Performing Voices of Bhakti. She holds a doctorate in Critical Dance Studies from UC Riverside, where her dissertation examined representation and the performance of myth among transnational Bharatanatyam practitioners. A few of her many accolades include Bridge Live Arts, Gluck Fellows Program, American Conservatory Theater ArtShare Program, SAFEhouse Arts Lead Resident Fellowship, and the All-Rounder Yuva Kala Bharati Award for Young Artists.
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