“ A beautiful, meditative piece... its transportive qualities fulfilled my desire for immersive art in a way that I have been desperately missing”
— Broadway World

Fires of Varanasi is an immersive ritual for the stage where time is suspended and humans merge with the divine. Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy imagine a metaphorical crossing place that enters into the world of immortality, expanding upon the birth-death-rebirth continuum in Hindu thought to honor immigrant experiences of life and death in the diaspora. For them, the transformation of the soul after cremation becomes a powerful symbol for human resilience and the tenacity of people and cultures across time.

The creation and U.S. touring of Fires of Varanasi is made possible in part through grants from the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project, with lead funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional creation support from the Marbrook Foundation; the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; The Dr. Dash Foundation, whose mission is to preserve and promote rich Indian heritage and culture; New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Baisley Powell Elebash Fund, & The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; the Fredrikson & Byron Foundation; the APAP Cultural Exchange Fund; Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy's 2018 Guggenheim Fellowships; Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy’s 2020 McKnight Fellowship, and Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy’s 2017 residential fellowship at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy.