Paris Laxmi could feel her heart beating faster. A few minutes into her Bharatnatyam dance performance at the Kerala Kalamandalam at Cheruthuruthy, Kerala, last October, she saw Kathakali legend Kalamandalam Gopi make his way to the front. Laxmi began to dance with even more vigour.
When her performance concluded, Gopi took the mike and said, “Paris Laxmi’s sincerity and skill for the dance are clear for all to see. All artistes of south India should appreciate and respect her dedication.”
At her home in Vaikom, Kerala, seated beside her husband, Pallippuram Sunil, a beaming Laxmi says, “It is the high point of my career.”
It is a windy and cloudy July morning, but Laxmi is shining in her Indian ensemble: a bright red cotton saree, a tear drop of a bindi, a dash of sindoor on her forehead and a gold necklace around her neck. “I like traditional Indian clothes,” she says. “Most of the time I wear sarees for functions and salwar kameez when I am at home.”
And when Laxmi speaks English, it is slow, careful and with pauses. “I like it here in Vaikom,” she says. Although she is quite far away from her own home.
Paris Laxmi grew up in the town of Aix-en-Provence in France. Her father, Yves, is a stage artist and poet, while her mother Patricia is a sculptor. From an early age, Laxmi heard stories about India from her parents, who were passionate about the country. In fact, she was named Myriam Sophia Lakshmi, while her brother is called Theo Elie Narayan.
“From childhood, my mother would tell me stories of Ganesha, Shiva, Krishna, Rama, Parvathi and Sita,” she says. “I remember my trips to India as a child.”
At nine, she began to learn Bharatnatyam from French dancers Armelle Choquard and Dominique Delorme. When she grew older, she had training stints at Dr Padma Subrahmanyam’s Nrithyodaya School of Dance in Chennai, and Dr Sucheta Chapekar’s Kalavardhini Institute in Pune. Apart from that, she knows jazz, flamenco, contemporary and ballet.
“By learning all these dance forms, I have become a better Bharatnatyam dancer,” she says. In 2012, Laxmi married Sunil. She had seen him for the first time when she was only seven during a programme at Fort Kochi.
“Among the group of dancers, he stood out,” says Laxmi. They met again when she was a teenager. “Later, at 19, we thought about marriage, though Sunil is 14 years older,” says Laxmi. “We are compatible because of our passion for the arts.”
A few months before the marriage, Laxmi converted to Hinduism. “Dancing is a worship of God,” she says. “And we portray goddesses when we are dancing. So it became natural for me to become a Hindu.”
Today, Sunil and Laxmi run the Kalashakti School of Arts at Vaikom where they teach Kathakali, Bharatanatyam, Mridangam, Violin and Carnatic Vocals. But Laxmi is disappointed by the attitude of some parents and students. “Some pupils are only interested in learning items, to win competitions, and not to master the art form,” she says. “I am looking for students who want to dedicate their lives to dance.”
The couple has developed a classical dance fusion called ‘Krishna Mayam’. While Sunil plays Krishna in the Kathakali style, Laxmi plays Radha, Draupadi, Kuchela and Arjuna in the Bharatnatyam style.
“The programme has been well received,” says Laxmi. In June, they performed at the Sri Jayadev Samaroh festival at Bhubaneswar. Later, Laxmi was honoured with the ‘Padmavathi Puraskar’, while the couple received the ‘Sri Jayadev Rastriya Nrithya Prathibha Puraskar’. Incidentally, Laxmi also played the role of a dancer in the Malayalam films, Big B and Bangalore Days.
Finally, when asked about her unusual name, she says, “It was mridangam maestro Thiruvarur Bakthavathsalam who told me that Laxmi is too brief a name. He said in south India, artistes add the names of their hometowns to their names. So, even though Paris is not my hometown, Bakthavathsalam Sir said Paris Laxmi sounds good. And so it became my name. And everybody likes it, including me.”