“River Rites,” an Indian dance drama, will be performed at Fisher Theatre by Aparna Sindhoor and Troupe Saturday at 7 p.m. The event is free.

The dance performance is sponsored by two Indian student groups, the Society for Indian Tradition and Arts and Sankalp, and the Government of the Student Body.

Ganesh Sriram, SITAR president, said the dancers will “depict the plight of the tribal people displaced by the building of dams along the Narmada River Valley” in a style of Indian dance that mixes classical techniques with yoga movements.

“The performance will have something in it for a lot of different people: social issues, environmental issues, and women’s issues,” SITAR member Rohini Ramaswamy said.

Murali Subramanian, president of Sankalp, expanded on the main theme of the performance, saying that the dams will disrupt the entire way of life of rural people in India whose self-sufficient culture relies on the land they live on.

“Our goal is two-fold: to encourage Indian students to better understand their own culture and to share it with the Ames community,” Sriram added.

“Often half of our audiences [for SITAR events] are non-Indian people,” Ramaswamy said, “so everyone is encouraged to come.”