In Super Ruwaxi: Origins, the Good Little Confucian Girl discovers her super-identity as the Hairy Arm-pitted Feminist, armed with magical gender-bending body odor that can change the course of patriarchal oppression. Super Ruwaxi: Origins mashes together theater, multimedia, and contemporary Indian dance to create a story about queerness, coming of age, and the immigrant experience. Inspired by the campy, larger-than-life world of American and Indian comic books, the piece hijacks and reinvents cultural material ranging from Superman to Judith Butler’s gender theory to the Hindu apsara (celestial dancer), Urvashi.

Created and Performed by: Cynthia Ling Lee and Shyamala Moorty
Director, Dramaturg, and Contributing Writer: Alison De La Cruz
Script and Choreography: Cynthia Ling Lee and Shyamala Moorty
Music Composition: Derrick Spiva Jr., Ravindra Deo, Ian Smith
Recorded Musicians: Kamaljeet Ahluwalia, Ananya Ashok, Neal Bharati, Chelsea Chambers, Ravindra Deo, Aditya Ganesh, Seema Hanamsagar, Ramesh Kumar, Pankaj Misra, David Trasoff
Voiceovers: Alison De La Cruz, Karen Huie, Shyamala Moorty, Lyn Ross, Ova Saopeng
Animation: Adnan Hussain
Costume Design: Danielle A. Domingue
Technical Director & Lighting Designer: Kedar Lawrence

Developed in part through a long-distance Post Natyam Collective creative process.  The development of Super Ruwaxi: Origins was supported in part by the City of Santa Monica Artist Fellowship Program, East West Players’ EVOKE New Works Festival, and Highways Performance Space’s BEHOLD!: A Queer Performance Series.

electronic press kit: SuperRuwaxi_epk.pdf

video: https://vimeo.com/channels/ruwaxi

Meet Super Ruwaxi, the Hairy Arm-pitted Feminist!

And her arch-nemesis, Razor Girl, of the Gender Police.