Ranee Ramaswamy is co-director of Ragamala Dance in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She has been a master teacher and performer of Bharatanatyam in the U.S. since 1978. Since her first cross-cultural collaboration with poet Robert Bly in 1991, Ms. Ramaswamy has been a pioneer in the establishment of non-Western dance traditions in Minneapolis and in pushing the boundaries of Indian classical dance on the global scene. Among her many awards are 14 McKnight Artist Fellowships for Choreography and Interdisciplinary Art, a Bush Fellowship for Choreography, an Artist Exploration Fund grant from Arts International, two Cultural Exchange Fund grants from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, a 2011 McKnight Distinguished Artist Award, and a 2012 United States Artists Fellowship. Most recently, Ranee was appointed to the National Council on the Arts by President Barack Obama.