Learning to dance as a young girl in India was just another way to add to Ranee Ramaswamy's resume for marriage. "My parents, all they wanted me to do was get married. This was going to be an added qualification to be in the market," she said. Though she loved it, by the time she was 17 her resume was complete. "So I didn't do any dancing from 17 to when I was 26," she said. In 1978, she and her then-husband, an engineer, moved to Minnesota for his job. And in this unlikely place, she rediscovered her love of dance. "I think at first I had no knowledge it was going to be so cold," she recalled of the move. "But you come where you have an opportunity. My ex-husband was an engineer and it was easy to get a visa there. When I came, the Indian community here heard I had studied dance and asked me if I would perform for an Indian Diwali festival." "I had no costume and no music. I bought a $5 tape recorder and I dug up a tape that had two pieces on it. "That was the beginning of everything. I started to go back to India every year to study." And so was born the Ragamala Dance Company, which remains headquartered in Minnesota but tours throughout the country, including Saturday's stop at the Clay Center. Ramaswamy continues to choreograph and dance with the company, joined now by her grown daughters, Aparna and Ashwini, who studied dance from the time they were very young. "We found a teacher who is the best in this form right here in Minneapolis," Ramaswamy said. "It was almost like studying with Martha Graham." Interestingly, most of the dancers come to Ragamala from other dance traditions. "The dancers we have are from the bottom trained by us. They are all local - the only Indian dancers are me and my daughters." The techniques and movements are unique. "It's a whole culture, not just movement. In order to present something, especially a dance that has a history of 2,000 years, you have to learn the nuances of the culture and of the movement," Ramaswamy said. "I think it is very, very difficult. It probably is as difficult as ballet. For many of our gestures, every single part of the face works.