February 11, 2002“Born Esther Luella Sherman in 1893 in suburban Michigan, and raised in Minneapolis, Ragini Devi, after an early start in silent movies and exotic oriental dancing, became convinced that she was a reincarnated Hindu whose sole mission in life was to spread the gospel of Indian dance to the world…
“Rahman’s mother was the famous Indrani Rahman, the half-Indian, half-American beauty crowned Miss India in 1952…But Indrani’s real contribution was as the dancer who put classical Indian dance on the world map from the early 1950s on.
“Sukanya has pored deep into her family history and into her own reservoir of childhood memory and tells the story with uncommon insight and vivid humour.”
The Portland Phoenix
March 29, 2002
“Stories of immigrants who forge a new American identity are commonplace, but it is more unusual to hear of Americans who reinvent themselves as members of another ethnic and cultural group.”
Danses-Indiennes L’actualitie des danses Indiennes
Written by the daughter of Indrani Rahman and the granddaughter of Ragini Devi.A thrilling and passionate testimony from the youngest of a generation of superb dancers who were at the heart of the revival of Indian sacred dances in the early twentieth century. March 18 2007
