Ragamala Dance Company Names Erik Madsen-Bond As Managing Director

Ragamala Dance Company has announced Erik Madsen-Bond as their new Managing Director. Erik steps into this role after seven years with the company, most recently as the Director of Operations, where he played a key part in community engagement, tour management, and administrative operations.

In this new role, Erik will work with Artistic Directors Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy to shape Ragamala's ambitious and exhilarating growth as the company celebrate their 30th anniversary season.

"Erik's contribution to Ragamala has been evident from the start. His strong analytical sense and strategic skill-combined with his long-standing commitment to the performing arts as a driving force for change-make him the ideal person for this leadership role," said Aparna Ramaswamy, Executive Artistic Director.

Each year, Ragamala's efforts to empower the South Asian American experience deepen. Throughout the pandemic, Ragamala was determined to engage with their audiences, and welcomed 102,733 virtual audience members. With the return to live programming, Ragamala has had 9,168 in-person audience members. In response to recent performances at the American Dance Festival, an audience member said, "Thank you for what you are doing to put the spotlight on our dance tradition to make it an equal player in the cultural landscape of this country."

For more information about Ragamala and their upcoming season, visit ragamaladance.org.

About Erik Madsen-Bond

Erik Madsen-Bond joined Ragamala Dance Company in 2015, holding several key administrative roles in operations, tour management, and community engagement.

As part of the leadership team, Erik works closely with Aparna Ramaswamy (Executive Artistic Director), Ranee Ramaswamy (Founder and Artistic Director), and the Board of Directors to create and implement strategies that advance the organization's goals.

Erik has managed Ragamala's tours to national and international presenters, including the Kennedy Center (DC), Lincoln Center (NY), American Dance Festival (NC), Northrop (MN), Dartmouth College (NH), Harris Theater (IL), New York University in Abu Dhabi (UAE), Joyce Theater (NY), University of Texas, Jacob's Pillow (MA), and more. His Minneapolis-St. Paul-based community and audience engagement work for Ragamala includes partnerships with the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minnesota History Center, Ordway, Northrop, India Association of Minnesota, and more. The engagement projects he managed have been funded by Dance/USA, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Knight Foundation, Saint Paul STAR, Minnesota State Arts Board, National Endowment for the Arts, and more.

Erik has served as an artist panelist for Arts Midwest's Emerging Artist Primer and a grant panelist for the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council. Erik holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Carleton College, and is originally from Cambridge, Massachusetts.

About Ragamala Dance Company

Ragamala Dance Company is the vision of award-winning mother/daughter artists Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy. Over the last four decades, Ranee and Aparna's practice in the South Indian dance form of Bharatanatyam has shifted the trajectory of culturally rooted performing arts in the United States to create an exemplary company within the American dance landscape. Through both intimate solos and large-scale theatrical works for the stage, Ranee and Aparna empower the South Asian American experience. By engaging the dynamic tension between ancestral wisdom and creative freedom, they reveal the kindred relationship between ancient and contemporary that is urgently needed in today's world.

Featuring Aparna Ramaswamy as Principal Dancer, Ragamala has been commissioned and presented extensively throughout the U.S., India, and abroad, highlighted by the Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Joyce Theater (New York), Lincoln Center (New York), Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (MA), Walker Art Center (Minneapolis), American Dance Festival (Durham, NC), The Soraya (Southern California), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, International Festival of Arts & Ideas (New Haven, CT), Cal Performances (Berkeley), Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Just Festival (Edinburgh, U.K.), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Sri Krishna Gana Sabha (Chennai, India), and National Centre for Performing Arts (Mumbai, India), among others. ragamaladance.org.