Intimate earthly embodiments: Dancing the seasons in bharatanatyam

The six seasons of Indian aesthetics expressed in the fifth-century poet Kalidasa’s Ritu Samhara (Cycle of Seasons) depict the landscapes of the natural world as reflections of the shifting inner worlds of a lover in relationship with his or her beloved. Weather patterns, animal behaviours, variances in rivers and cycles of trees parallel the rhythmic dance of desire between humans and between humans and nature. This article traces an ethnographic example of Kalidasa’s work, Ritu: The Seasons as choreographed by Suchitra Sairam in the South Asian storytelling dance form of bharatanatyam. As a unique thematic programme focused on nature, danced in an outdoor venue, Ritu offers kinesthetic insights into how gesture sequences enact a particular oscillation of inward and outward responsiveness between humans and the environment within the aesthetic framework of sringara rasa, an erotic mood. Attuning the dancers’ bodies to aspects of nature nurtures an intimacy at the centre of an embodied ecological relationality.