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Tamara
Nadel has been a member of Ragamala Music and Dance Theater
for over ten years. A student of Bharatanatyam—a classical dance
form from southern India—under Ragamala Artistic Directors Ranee
Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, Tamara gave her solo debut performance
(arangetram) in 1998. With Ragamala, she has performed classical and
contemporary Bharatanatyam choreography at numerous venues nationally
and internationally. A graduate of Macalester College with a degree
in Religious Studies and Dance, Tamara is the recipient of a Minnesota
State Arts Board Career Opportunity Grant and a Jerome Foundation
Travel Study Grant for travel to India. Artist
Philosophy
I am inspired
by work that embodies technical proficiency, intense physicality,
and depth of emotion - in which theme and movement intertwine organically,
and in which dancers are both physically and emotionally engaged.
I believe that artistic integrity comes from this congruence, which
can exist in all genres of dance - from ballet to modern to jazz
to culturally-based forms to contemporary, cross-cultural collaborations.
These qualities transcend style, context and theme.
I am particularly
engaged by work that explores spiritual themes - work that, like
stained glass windows or mystical poetry, translates the visceral
qualities of the sacred in a way that doctrine cannot. However,
I believe that, in order to be inspirational, dance need not take
on lofty themes. It can be about something as simple as the dancers’
sheer joy in physical movement. |
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I am drawn to
Bharatanatyam, and to Ragamala’s work, because of the profound
way in which it intertwines the physical and the emotional. It is
in this confluence of body and soul that a culturally-based form
can be universal, possessing the potential to speak on many levels
- from the intellectual to the visceral - and to move any audience,
regardless of religion, cultural background, experience or education.
As a dancer, this is the ideal toward which I strive.
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