Dance is used to express emotion and beauty. It often tells a story.

But you don’t usually think of dance as being used to express philosophy.

“We’re showing the rhythm of life,” says Aparna Ramaswamy of the Ragamala Dance troupe. “Our program is called, ‘Sacred Earth,’ and it shows the interconnectedness between man and nature.”

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The Minnesota-based, mother-daughter dance team (Aparna is the daughter) performs traditional Bharatanatyam dance from India but reinterprets it for a modern age.

“My mother and I were inspired by two other forms of traditional Indian art,” Ramaswamy says. “Kolams and Warli.”

Kolams are a southern Indian tradition that goes back thousands of years. Each morning, women say prayers to invoke the blessings of the goddess of prosperity, who is the mother of the universe, while drawing intricate art patterns with rice powder. These kolams are made outside the home or business as an invitation to the hearth. They are both a way of saying thanks for the bounty of the Earth and a means to give back. The rice powder feeds animals.

“They also represent the temporary-ness of life,” Ramaswamy notes, because, as people walk over them and animals eat the rice powder, they vanish over the course of the day, needing to be redone the next morning.

Warli paintings, meanwhile, are an ascetic tradition from northern India that depicts the blessings and the tranquility of nature. Ragamala projects Warli art onto huge screens onstage, and the dancers weave around and through them.

“The show is a giant Warli painting to come to life,” Ramaswamy says.

The dancing is accompanied by live music. Each song is a sangam – a short nature poem similar to Haiku. An English translation is recited before each piece, so the audience will be better able to understand the symbolism of the dance.

And that’s really important to the Ramaswamys. They have a message they feel needs to be heard.

“‘Green’ is very trendy right now,” Aparna says, “but these women have been making kolams for thousands of years. They’ve been celebrating the Earth longer than this fashion.

“The kolam is the internal expression of this love and gratitude, and the Warli art symbolizes the external. The show reflects the interconnectedness between man, nature, and the elements.”

The Ramaswamys seek to foster that understanding in more ways than just their show. Ranee, the mother, was recently appointed by President Obama to the National Council for the Arts, the organization that oversees the NEA. She’s currently awaiting Senate confirmation.

On a smaller scale, they conduct outreach in each community to which they tour. Tonight at the Lawrence Arts Center, they’ll be teaching a master class to LAC dance students, and the public is invited. The class runs from 6:15pm to 7:30pm. Tomorrow they’ll be on the KU campus guest-instructing a musicology and a dance class, and conducting a workshop on kolams from 3:30pm to 4:30pm at the Kansas Union.

The show, “Sacred Earth,” runs at the Lied Center Friday, September 28 at 7.30pm. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 785-864-2787 or online at lied.ku.edu.