If there is one word to sum up what a conversation on the current and past going ons of dancer/actor/choreographer/artistic director/anti-bullying campaigner Nico Archambault makes one feel, it has to be underachieving.
The man has a resume that would have most Canadiana see green, and it just keeps on accumulating. Between judging a new talent show on YTV and starring in Quebec’s version of Girls Archambault and wife Wynn Holmes run Street Parade, ‘a venture that provides original creations, creative direction, consulting, stage direction, production services and movement coaching’.
"I like to keep busy and have my hands in a lot of things," the winner of So You Think You Can Dance Canada’s first season says, adding that many of these will be behind the scene.
What really sets this power duo apart, however, is the amount of time and passion they contribute to charity.
Archambault has been a long time collaborator with the Family Channel, participating in awareness campaigns, rallies and designing a T-shirt to fundraise for PrevNET, Canada’s largest ant-bullying network. He has also worked with the RCMP to web conference with students across the country on the topic of bullying, coaching kids on how to develop their own anti-bullying plan and implement in their school.
"The main part is to inform people on what [bullying] is; how to recognize it and how to address it," he says.
Additionally, every year, Archambault and Holmes travel to Belgrade, Serbia, to choreograph and coach Roma youth in an interesting Quebec-founded initiative called GRUBB: Gypsy Roma Urban Balkan Beats.
GRUBB is a musical performance project that offers Roma youth a voice, ‘Because it is no longer acceptable to act as if the segregation of Romanies does not exist.’
"It’s such an amazing project," he says. He and Holmes first became involved when the project was just an educational program, through the stage director of a musical that Archambault was working on in Montreal, GRUBB Director Serge Denoncourt.
"They knew we would get hooked," he says, adding that he and his wife fell in love with the kids. "We kept going back once or twice a year; every time we could."
The dance couple not only help choreograph the show but now, as the number of participants have grown and the Roma community has come to trust the project, they are teaching leadership skills to the students, assisting them in the ability to design their own shows.
This year the youth will be touring their program to Quebec, Archambault’s home soil, March 27th to April 13th.
Though full of confidence and candour now, Archambault has not had an easy climb up the ladder of success. Much of his inspiration to reach out to misunderstood and targeted youth stems from having been one of these youth himself.
"What’s interesting is that while I’m not gay myself, I also have been through a great deal of homophobia and specifically homophobic bullying because I was dancing," he says.
When asked what got him through it, he names two things: a supportive family who afforded him an encouraging prerogative and a rigorous passion for dance.
"I was always afraid and doubting a lot of aspects about myself, but there was at least this one thing I was good at...that gave me a lot of satisfaction...my way out...even though that was the reason I was being bullied in the first place."
Arcahmbault says it is instrumental that regardless of what you are being bullied for never be fooled into thinking the solution is to try to change who you are.
"Never try to please the masses or the crowd because it’s an impossible goal...you’ll never make everyone happy," he says. "If I had left dance they would have found something else to make fun of me for...Kids will always find a way."
Archambault encourages youth who are the victims of bullying to seek out support. If that’s not your family, find someone else that either understands what you are going through or has gone through something similar.
"It already takes away so much of the weight when you feel like you’re not alone... If you feel like you’re alone in it you feel isolated very quickly...it’s very easy to think that the others are right – that there is something wrong with you."
While Archambault feels society still has a long way to go in achieving equality for all genders and orientations, things are improving.
"It is so much better than when I was a kid," he says. "[Bullying] does end and it ends quickly as your world expands and you meet people that are likeminded, that see life the same way that you do."
Finally he encourages bullied youth to, "Cherish who you are as a person...what you’re passionate about or your sexual identity. In the long run that’s what really is going to set you apart."
Certainly that way of thinking has worked for him. Though previous to appearing on the premier run of So You Think You Can Dance Canada he was already making a name for himself in Quebec. Winning the season definitely skyrocketed his career beyond the Francophone walls.
Archambault was invited back to the series as a choreographer for the three successive seasons and assigned head judge for France’s first season of the show. He also caught the eye of dance legend Janet Jackson, and was cast as the featured dancer in the video for her single "Make Me". He performed with Jackson at the American Music Awards, on the X-Factor UK, and at various other shows in London – pretty much every dancer/choreographer’s dream come true.
"But it wasn’t mine," he says, explaining that it wasn’t his style, though he enjoyed and grew from the experience. He adds that this major CV boost was a source of both envy and pride within his dance circle.
Archambault has since proven himself not just an acclaimed dancer but a credible actor as well. His portrayal of the bi-sexual ballet icon Rudolf Nureyev scored him a Gemini Award nomination, and his company Street Parade pulled in five Gèmeaux awards for their co-production of the docu-series Ils Dansent.
On March 11th, The Next Star: SuperGroup (for which Archambault sits on a panel of experts as choreographer and performance coach) that will select Canada’s next mega group premiered on YTV. On that same day the CBC web series Quart de Vie, what the actor dubs ‘the Quebec version of Girls’, also launched.
"It’s really funny," he says. "I play a man who is constantly objectified...and he turns a little creepy at the end."
Archambault also stars in Stagnant Pool, written and directed by Kevin Calero. This film is a modern take on the myth of Narcissus, explored through dance, and a Cannes Festival hopeful. The film was submitted to entries last month.
Though he choreographed and can be seen in his wife’s musical project the Pinup Saints YouTube videos, Archambault says he is not involved in music anymore and that collaboration has dissolved. Holmes now sings for act Heartcopy, a fun poppy-synth group whose track "Re-Do" should probably make your summer playlist.
As for what style the multifaceted dancer now prefers he answers without delay.
"Contemporary allows me to blend a lot of influences and I always like to do that," he says. "I can throw in everything from ballroom to urban hip hop – everything that inspires me musically."
Archambault and Holmes don’t like to plan for the future, so we can’t say what we’ll see them doing next. It’s a non-plan that seems to have kept both their work fresh.
