“The heavens can’t contain you, and yet my thoughts somehow do; haven’t I hidden your name in my heart until my love for you crossed my lips?”
—Shelomo Ibn Gabirol (translated by Peter Cole)
Dancer Tamara Nadel has been a student and disciple of choreographer Ranee Ramaswamy (Founder/Co-Director of the Twin Cities’ renowned Ragamala Dance Company) for more than 20 years. Throughout this time, they have found striking synergies between their Hindu and Jewish traditions, customs, and worldviews—particularly in the way mystical poets from both traditions have used intricate narratives of human love as allegorical representations of the human soul longing for the divine.
This ongoing conversation has inspired Haven’t I Hidden Your Name?—a new dance work rooted in the writings of the Golden Age Sephardic poets Shelomo Ibn Gabirol, Moshe Ibn Ezra, and Yehuda HaLevi, explored through the South Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam.
Concept and Choreography: Ranee Ramaswamy
Choreographic Consultant: Aparna Ramaswamy
Dancer and Poetry Selection: Tamara Nadel
Original music by Cantor Basya Schechter and Lalit Subramanian, specially commissioned for this work
Vocalists: Cantor Audrey Abrams and Vinod Krishnan
Consultants: Professor Shana Sippy and Cantor Audrey Abrams
Tickets: $10 in advance, $15 at the door
Purchase tickets HERE
Related Event
Please join us for Your Name in My Heart: An Introduction to Medieval Spanish Jewish Poetry – a talk by Professor Stacy Beckwith of Carleton College.
10am, Sunday, November 5th
Beth El Synagogue
Admission is free
More information on the poetry discussion HERE
This project is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; the Howard B. and Ruth F. Brin Jewish Arts Endowment, a fund of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation’s Foundation; and Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council, an initiative of the Minneapolis Jewish Federation.
