Meet the Beyoncé-Approved Dancer Doing Home Workouts With Marine Serre
If you found yourself scrolling through Marine Serre’s Instagram feed last week, usually populated with images of her future-facing, upcycled designs and cinematic, sci-fi-inspired campaigns, something a little more unexpected may have crossed your radar. That would be the lithe figure of Nick Coutsier, a Belgian dancer and longtime friend of Serre, throwing shapes with wild abandon for one of his “Body Party” warm-ups. Clad in one of the designer’s signature stretch jersey tops covered in crescent moons, Coutsier encouraged others to join in as he danced energetically to the South African producer DJ Mujava’s modern club classic “Township Funk.”
“It’s a little like when you’re singing in the shower, and you think you’re Beyoncé—although, I don’t know, maybe that’s just me,” says Coutsier, laughing. “The idea is just to invite people to dance like nobody’s watching. When people enjoy the physical experience of partying, it’s like switching on a light, so it’s really just a reminder for people to keep their light on right now, even in isolation.”
At just 26, Coutsier has had a surprisingly long and winding journey to get to where he is today. As an energetic teen growing up in Belgium, he found an outlet in hip-hop dance classes, while also flirting with the possibility of studying fashion design. “I think the reason I’ve always been interested in the relationship between fashion and dance is that I first expressed myself through movement, and then secondly, through dressing up,” he explains. “I love the idea that whatever you wear can have an impact on your mood, or how you feel—for me, getting dressed is just another way of taking care of my body.”
A year out in Los Angeles followed, after which he returned to Belgium and began studying contemporary dance at the Royal Conservatoire in Antwerp. “I like to keep myself diverse as a dancer, and to challenge myself to push against its boundaries,” Coutsier adds, talking from his current home in Brussels. “It’s the same with getting dressed—I don’t really like to label myself as having one particular style, and I’m lucky to have friends who work in fashion who think in the same way.” In keeping with this philosophy, his career has been impressively peripatetic, moving from working with the award-winning, genre-defying choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui to dancing with the Royal Ballet of Flanders.
A full-circle moment came when he was invited back to Los Angeles last year by JaQuel Knight, Beyoncé’s choreographer, to act as a lead dancer for the video for the original song she contributed to The Lion King soundtrack, “Spirit.” “I was just thinking about being in L.A. six years before and trying to make it, then feeling like I needed to know more about dance and going back to study something completely different. Being called back to that same city to work with the Queen Bee six years later was a very fulfilling moment.”
Coutsier’s relationship with Marine Serre, on the other hand, extends all the way back to their time as students in Belgium; Serre at the city’s esteemed fashion college, La Cambre, and Coutsier at dance school. He recalls their first meeting as taking place in a club during a dance battle, and they’ve stayed in touch over the years to support each other’s nascent careers. Just last month, Coutsier attended Serre’s fall 2020 show as part of Paris Fashion Week, which ended up being the spark that encouraged Serre to set up their collaborative self-isolation workouts over Instagram. “We were talking just then about working together on something, and now with the coronavirus, she said, ‘You know, there’s something we could do here.’”
“I’ve always admired her, because her brand is much more than just selling a piece of clothing—she uses it as a platform to share a political message with people,” Coutsier continues. “I also think the brand fits perfectly with this idea of being constantly in movement, partly because of her athleticwear, which is about giving you the comfort to do whatever you want to do, but also her interest in club culture, and the idea also that it’s for everyone.”
It’s this spirit of inclusivity (as well as a healthy dose of party-ready energy) that defines what Coutsier is all about, from his outlook on dance to his personal style. “I mean, I just love to party,” he says, laughing. “But for me, I need to move every day, and this confinement made me realize how much I use movement as a coping mechanism, to get out of my own head. I think people party to either connect or to disconnect—it can be with alcohol, or substances, or music, or just being in a social environment—and I’m very curious, especially during this confinement, about how we can tap into that enjoyment, that catharsis, that thrill that you have when you’re at a party, without the club environment. When all that’s left is you and your body.”
It’s something that Coutsier is hoping to channel with his warm-ups, which invite everybody—no matter your level of dance ability, or how much space you have—to participate and find a moment of escapist thrill in dancing without inhibition, even within the comfort of your own home. “The moments when I feel most alive and most connected are when I’m in my body, when I move. I don’t even call it dance, I just call it moving,” he concludes. “I think at a dark time like this, we all need moments where we can feel truly alive.”
Originally Appeared on Vogue
