November Free First Saturday: Around the World
Campers having fun at Concordia Language Villages. Courtesy of Concordia Language Villages.
Around the World
November 4, 2017
10 am — 3 pm
Join us for a day of international festivals presented in collaboration with Concordia Language Villages and Ragamala Dance Company.
Concordia Language Villages’ expert educators will engage families with cultural traditions from around the world. Visitors will learn about France’s Fête des Lumières, the Nordic Summer Solstice, the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節 or 中秋节)… and maybe even pick up some new vocabulary words! Families will create masks, dance around a maypole, listen to moon-viewing stories, and much more.
Concurrently, Ragamala presents its 3rd annual Ode to Navarathri festival. In Southern India, Navarathri is commemorated with a Navarathri Kolu, a time when families welcome neighbors into their homes for a celebration rooted in the sharing of art. Ragamala’s annual Ode to Navarathri expands this notion into a community-wide gathering which includes a traditional South Indian Kolu, curated performances by local artists and community members, and a kolam rice flour design workshop.
“The festival of Navarathri is deeply rooted in symbolism and ancient stories, but is also informal and warm. According to Artistic Director Ranee Ramaswamy, ‘The important thing is, art is bigger than you. You share what you have. We’re hoping to bring that feeling of oneness that connects community with the arts.’” — MINNPOST
Gallery admission is free for everyone on the first Saturday of each month from 10 am to 6 pm, with a variety of family activities scheduled from 10 am to 3 pm.
Ragamala Dance Company presents Ode to Navarathri. Courtesy of Ragamala Dance Company.
About Concordia Language Villages:
Concordia Language Villages is the premier language and culture immersion program in the United States, offering programs in 15 languages for youth, adults and families.
Under the direction of Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, Ragamala Dance Company’s work explores the dynamic tension between the ancestral and the personal. As choreographers and performers, Ranee and Aparna create dance landscapes that dwell in opposition — secular and spiritual life, inner and outer worlds, human and natural concerns, rhythm and stillness — to find the transcendence that lies in between. As mother and daughter, each brings her generational experience to the work — the rich traditions, deep philosophical roots, and ancestral wisdom of India meeting and merging with their hybridic perspective as Indian-American artists.
For the past 30 years, Ranee and Aparna have worked together in an intergenerational creative partnership. Together they have created their own specific sub-genre that combines a contemporary Western aesthetic with an Indian ethos.