Q&A with Artist-in-Residence Matt Couvillon

Matthew Couvillon is the artist-in-residence for the UL Department of Dance from September 29 through October 8. Couvillon is an alumni of both the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s Department of Performing Arts as well as The School at Jacob’s Pillow. He has toured both Nationally and Internationally with West Side Story (A-Rab) and A Chorus Line (Larry, Mike, dance captain). And his Regional credits include: Cats (Pouncival, Skimbleshanks, Mistoffelees), The Pajama Game (Steam Heat dancer), and Brigadoon (featured dancer). He has also danced with Mary Seidman and Dancers dance company in NYC. Couvillon has also assisted Director/Choreographer and Broadway veteran Baayork Lee on productions of A Chorus Line, Oliver, The Public Theatre’s Gala tribute to Composer Marvin Hamlisch as well as two shows for Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

What is it like returning to the department that you were a part of as a student?

It’s extremely exciting. It’s grown so much since I’ve been here. Everything is growing, and it’s all going in the right direction. It’s also nice to come back because I got so much from this department. My greatest mentors come from this program and from this faculty. So, to be able to come back and to work on the other side of it all is really nice. It’s so important for me to be back here because, without the four years that I spent here, I would be nothing of who I am now. My training, my sense of self, my sense of expectation in my life, personally and professionally, all came from this place.

What is the most important lesson you learned at UL?

While I was here, I was creating but it was always for a course with other students. But I spent a lot of time trying to do it “correctly.” It was always designed to impress my teachers, my mentors, my judicators. I think it wasn’t until the very end during my senior year that I just did “me.” That’s when they were the most impressed – that I could make work what works for me as an individual artist. So I guess what I learned the most was to be true to myself and my instincts and to understand that it is different, but that’s okay because it’s new and it’s something else to offer.

What or who inspired you to start performing?

I think my story is like most stories in the sense of having a family that works in the fields, and I was the little kid sitting in the tractor singing songs and putting on shows. And that’s what I think a lot of young people do. I think that sense of play is so important. But I know that it was when I did Annie Jr. in fifth grade, and I was one of those orphans with lines. That’s when it took off. I started doing musicals with local community theaters and later on in my high school drama department. Teachers I had opened up my eyes to what all of this could be. I wanted to be a choreographer before I even knew what dance was. There was just something about the idea of creating this stuff that I was so keen to. Then, I came to UL. Kenneth Jenkins, hands down, is one of the best, and all the technique that I have today is because of this faculty.

What is your biggest achievement in your career thus far?

I don’t know. That’s hard. I honestly don’t find myself very interesting. You wake up, and this is just what you do. But I know that what we do as performers is very intriguing to someone who is not exposed to all of that. I wouldn’t say it’s an achievement, but I’ve been extremely lucky in working with the people who I’ve worked with. I did A Chorus Line and learned it from Baayork Lee who was in the original production and is now the woman who sets the show everywhere. I did West Side Story with Joey McKneely, who is the man of the dance of West Side Story. So, what I’m saying is that I lucked out that in the work that I’ve done, I’ve worked with the people who were truly connected to the work. I don’t know if that answers the question. I know I’ve done some exciting things, but I always say that it’s so much of who I am that it’s hard to separate from that and think of it as being “achievements.” I set out to do something when I knew that this is what I wanted to do. And this is where I was the most happy, more than happy. It was more than an idea of being happy. It was that this is what felt right, and I had a sense of understanding. I set out to do it, and I never looked back.

Where do you hope your career will go from here? What is your goal?

I want to do the work. Wherever that is is where I need to be. I want to be creating and choreographing. Wherever the work is needed or things that I believe in or things that I need to say or explore and push myself to truly develop. I think that’s the main thing. For me, it’s about doing the work. If you would’ve asked me five years ago, it was something totally different. You know, people have this grand idea of their name in lights, but it’s really about doing the work and growing as an artist and as a person.

You’re choreographing a piece for State of LA Danse. Can you tell a little bit about the piece?

The technical side of it is me trying to explore and make my two worlds exist in one, in terms of my theatrical sensibility and my modern dance vocabulary and figuring out how to make these two work. I’m using recordings from the 1920s, and I’m exploring the idea of women’s liberation that later informed the women’s sexual movement from the 60s to the 80s. I’m using the idea of prohibition, women’s suffrage, speakeasies, man and woman existing for the first time in a bar. Then, I’m turning it around and questioning the audience, although they feel disconnected from this because it isn’t their time, asking them what are we doing to the current women’s movement by allowing things like rape culture surfacing again in the college systems, where one out of five women are sexually assaulted in her time at a school. Though we think we’re not connected to it, we are. And what are we going to do about it? It may not be you, but it may be the person sitting next to you in the audience. The piece is set in the vaudeville theatre with old approaches, but I’m then flipping it around for a modern idea and audience. So, it’s all presentational, but when the moment hits, the honest question of “what are you going to do about this” truly reads and resonates for the audience to then decide what their answer is.

What is some advice you can offer to young, aspiring artists?

I want to say something extremely smart and profound, but I don’t think it’s all of that. I think, like what I said about what I want my own career to be, it’s really about doing the work. You’ve got to do the work. You’ve got to train, know your history, who’s working now, and be very well-informed. The rest will fall in line. I watched an interview with Twyla Tharp, one of the world’s leading choreographers of modern dance, and they asked her the same question. I almost stole her answer, but she said, “It’s not to have a dream but to have a purpose.” I think that’s truly what it is. With a dream, we get caught up in the idea of our names in lights and disconnected from that is the idea of the work and what it took those people to get there. With a dream, there is this thing that we’re chasing for our names to be in lights, and who knows when or if we will get there. It’s just going to lead you down a very dark, dark road because this business is hard. You need to wake up every morning with a purpose. I have a purpose to create, so I will create; I have a purpose to be the best dancer I can be, so I’m going to take classes; I want to be a playwright, so I’m going to write every day. It’s about understanding your existence in life. And eventually, maybe one day your name will be in lights. Maybe not. But you will be doing the work. You will be happy. At least, that’s what I’m going by.