It may have been a coincidence, but it was quite meaningful.
At the recently hosted Jayadev Samaroha in Bhubaneswar - a festival of Indian classical dances staged as a tribute to the 12th century saint-poet - Jayadev Awards were conferred on a dancer representing each style. Similarly, another set of awards were presented to young, gifted dancers named after Padmavati, the dancing-wife of poet Jayadev. While Jayadev Award went to Kerala’s Kathakali dancer Pallipuram Sunil, the Padmavati Award was presented to his wife Paris Laxmi from France – thus making the moment meaningful.
Bound by loveThe concert that the couple staged was also aptly titled Sangamam (confluence) and it added further attraction to their presentation. It was a confluence of two distinctly different people, culture and traditions – French-Indian, Western-Eastern and Kathakali-Bharatanatyam – brought together through love followed by marriage.
“Even before our marriage, we always wished to dance together”, revealed Paris Laxmi who was named Myriam Sophia Lakshmi by her parents who are French by birth but Indian at heart. “I belong to an artistes’ family — my father is a dramatist and mother, a sculptor. My younger brother named Narayan has been learning Indian percussion instruments of mridangam and table in India. Even before my birth, India was already a part of my life as my parents were passionate about everything India – its customs, people, philosophy, arts and heritage. As a kid, I was very fond of dancing. And my mother was telling me stories of Hindu Gods like Ganesh, Shiva-Parvati, Krishna, Rama-Sita. As a result, I loved them all since my childhood but as I decided to be a dancer, what fascinated me the most was the dancing together of Shiva and Parvati. Never had I imagined that I would live a life like my most favourite dancing-couple,” she shared beaming a smile of content.
Kathakali casts a spell“I believe in the age old saying that marriages are made in heaven and executed on earth. At the age of seven, I watched a Kathakali performance for the first time in my life at Fort Kochi in Kerala along with my parents who came as tourists. A very young artiste was performing for us, with others. Though I was amazed by all of them, he was the one who touched me the most. For nearly two weeks, I continued to watch him in Kochi. I loved the colourful costumes of Kathakali and he used to show them and explain everything that I wished to know about the costumes. It was Sunil….no one could imagine then that he would be my husband 14 years later! He is 13 years older than me!” revealed Laxmi who has made India her home and has embraced Hinduism following her marriage three years ago.
It seems Laxmi was destined to be a dancer. “My mother tells me that when I was just two years old, I started to ask for dance classes; but no teacher was ready to teach such a small girl. Finally, I started with contemporary dance classes for children at the age of five in Aix-en-Provence, a small town in south of France where I was born and brought up.
The same year my parents decided to bring my brother and me to India for the first time. We enjoyed living in India so much that we came every year for two months during the holidays and then for longer periods. I discovered the classical dances of India during these trips and got a real fascination for it. In France, I started to study jazz and classical ballet but I also wanted to study an Indian dance style. My mother fortunately found a Bharatanatyam teacher in our town, Armelle Choquard. At the age of nine, I started Bharatanatyam with her and then under dancer-choreographer Dominique Delorme. Finally, I moved to India for my training and I was fortunate to come under the tutelage of stalwarts like Sucheta Chapekar in Pune, Padma Subramaniam in Chennai and Rama Vaidyanathan from Delhi”, stated the dancer in her early 20s who, along with her husband, has set up Kalashakti Centre of Arts at Vaikom, an hour’s drive from Kochi in Kerala. The Centre hosts monthly concerts of dance and music inviting artistes from various parts of India apart from imparting training in Kathakali, Bharatanatyam and western ballet.
Stint in moviesBesides being a gifted dancer, Paris Laxmi has been emerging as a favourite face for the film industry following her brief but impressive performance in Amal Neerad's Malayalam movie Big B starring legendary Mammootty and the role of Kuttan's Michelle in Anjali Menon’s critically acclaimed Malayalam movie Bangalore Days .
“Both the characters revolve round the life of a dancer and hence I thoroughly enjoyed acting in cinema. Interestingly and coincidentally, in Bangalore Days , I play the character of a foreigner who lands in India to learn dance!” she confided.
