Nelly Bouchardeau was born in Strasbourg on August 30, 1922. The Bouchardeaus formed a close-knit family, whose father was a highly qualified ESTP engineer: on his death he was holder of a dozen patents in the automotive field. Her mother, who was very gifted in music, gave piano lessons, but mainly took care of the education of her daughter Nelly. The couple had a second child: Guy, who was to die in Africa where he operated a farm.
Madame Bouchardeau, and the Russian professors exiled to Paris, who gave the first classical dance lessons to Nelly, very quickly realised the obvious:this little girl was very talented at dancing.
As soon as she reached the required age, she was presented for the competition entrance to the Petits Rats school of the Paris Opera where she was immediately noticed and admitted. This is how she initially made a career as a professional dancer. Thereafter, she reconverted in teaching and she animated and directed, until her retirement, a Dance School modern classical as well as Indian dance, in the city of Caen.
It is during the period that Normandy that having sensitised Mrs. Colette Chopart, Doctor Anjuaire and several of the personalities of the city to her project: to help the small Indian orphans of the south of the peninsula, she created an association: “The Children of the Universe “.
Let us take this opportunity to point out the exceptional collaboration of Mrs. Colette Darde, who devoted her whole life to children in difficulty, who was for many years the faithful secretary of the association, who was the closest collaborator and above all the more efficient by Nelly BOUCHARDEAU. She pushed the association to the point of knowing by heart the first names of all the children sponsored.
How did Nelly discover India?
She discovered India for the first time while filming a program for French television: “Cinq Colonnes à la Une” in Poona, in 1967. This city is often considered one of the most important cultural capitals and arts of India.
It is in this city of Maharashtra that Nelly discovered Indian dances for the first time and will remain forever conquered.
Thereafter she made many stays in India, and especially in Chennai, to participate in training courses in order to learn Bharatanatyam as well as yoga: she will later teach these two disciplines in her dance school in CAEN.
Nelly discovers Mercy Home.
It was during a stay in the city of Madras, now Chennai, where she was to give performances of classical dance, that Nelly made two discoveries that would definitively redirect her life: the first, the dramatic situation of the life of children in the city’s orphanages and the second that of Bharatanatyam: classical and sacred dance of Tamil Nadu.
From then on, she spent longer and longer stays in India with Marie-Paule, during the summer holidays, to visit the various centres welcoming orphans; in order to study with the managers of these establishments the most effective way of coming to their aid. This will eventually materialise with the creation of a French sponsorship association: “Les Enfants de l’Univers”. It was also during one of her trips that she sponsored in 1969 and later adopted a little Indian orphan, Marie-Paule, who is now the president of our association “Nelly BOUCHARDEAU”.
Nelly Bouchardeau was to retire in 1990 and will settle in Pondicherry in a studio that she will rent for the year. For twenty years she got used, sometimes twice a year, to travelling Paris/Chennai (Madras), and this without encountering the slightest problem.
During her stay in France she lived in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine where she had bought an apartment in order to spend as much time as possible with Marie-Paule.
In Pondicherry, she devoted a large part of her days to the young girls of the embroidery workshop of the Cluny sisters, where she taught yoga and gymnastics. This establishment was run by a well-known personality in the Tamil Nadu region: Sister Thérèse BOUCHEZ.
Many times the directors of the different centres came to visit him in Pondicherry, to ask him for advice. The most assiduous of them was Brother Kimpton, an English monk, who directed the centre of Kallupati and for whom she had great friendship.
Nelly was a very charismatic person who naturally attracted sympathy. She was to leave us on June 17, 2019 at the age of 96.
The return of “Nelly BOUCHARDEAU »
All the people of Caen will remember the dance school that she hosted on rue Saint-Pierre and rue du Havre and from which we heard a voice firm, without being authoritarian, uttering expressions that are incomprehensible to ordinary mortals: “Exercises at the barre, chased, jumping cat, long throw, chain of steps, whipped on points … etc. » when we approached the door of the studios, while walking on the sidewalks.
Nelly left us on June 17, 2019 and now she is dancing with the angels. She rests in the cemetery of Pantin, where she lived with her daughter, her last years.
Many of us will also remember her adopted daughter Marie-Paule. She has just decided to take up the torch and take advantage of her experience in sponsoring underprivileged children (let’s not forget that she was one of those), acquired from her mother by creating a sponsorship association whose name is simply: “Nelly BOUCHARDEAU”.
His personal experience in India has enabled him to organise, each year, in the midst of the covid period, six distributions of food for the poorest in the city of Pondicherry, and this using only word of mouth.
We wish much success to Marie-Paule and her association which you can join on the Web (www.nellybouchardeau.org), by Mail ([email protected]) and by post (Association Nelly Bouchardeau, 8, rue Germaine-Tillion 14000 Caen).