Learning the nuances of ‘navarasas’ was a novel experience for the young students. They tried to emulate ‘bheebhalsam’ and ‘shringaram’ that flashed across the face of the teacher Maryse Noiseux to their best. Maryse, a Canada-born Kathakali artiste, with her disciple Clio Gaudenzi, an Italian, were holding a Kathakali lecture demonstration for the little students at Chalai UP School on Thursday.
Maryse then moved to the middle of the pretty large number of students sitting on the floor. The gestures of a monkey and an archer threw up moments of fun, excitement and happiness on their faces as the teacher excelled in making the sounds too. She helped some students make the ‘mudras’ come right on the tiny fingers.
In the summer heat-filled-school auditorium, the teaching-learning process continued for an hour and before concluding the session, the teacher expressed her happiness for being with the kids in her artsy way through ‘mudras’ and ‘bhavas’.
Maryse, a disciple of Kathakali maestro Kudamaloor Karunakaran Nair, says teaching ‘playful’ Kathakali to kids is a wonderful act as it incorporates lots of involvement, concentration and coordination through stories.
She has been running Satsangam Centre for Art and Culture at Santhivila, Nemom, here, where classical art forms, including Kathakali, have been taught for several years. Clio has been learning Kathakali under Maryse for the past two years. They were accompanied by Christiane Ballan, a documentary maker from France, Simone Pontieri from Italy and T Ajithkumar, a Kalari teacher.
Though not trained in Kathakali, Simone did his part by capturing the moments in his camera and Christiane was happy to be with the crowd and appreciate the class.
It was enough proof that the kids enjoyed the classes so much that, when the classes were over, they rushed towards Maryse to get them photographed with her on the mobile phone cameras of their teachers.