From Ballet to Breakdance: Meet Mr. Matt

When we first sat down to interview over coffee, Matt Gasper-or “Mr. Matt,” as he’s known to his students-dutifully recounted the litany of past performances and career influences that just about any established performing artist could recite in their sleep. Somewhere between his story of choreographing Concordia College’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the age of 18 and his principal role as Johnny in PBS’s Blue Suede Shoes, there seemed to be more to Mr. Matt than the male ballet dancer portrayed in the faded photos on programs and brochures scattered across the table. There was true passion for the artistry of dance, a readiness to respond to new directions in the art form, to bring dance to a broader audience in the community.

“Dance is beautiful. Emotional. Powerful. Sexy. Moving,” says Matt Gasper, Artistic Director of Fargo Moorhead Ballet and owner of Gasper’s School of Dance and Performing Arts. “Audience members need to experience this side of dance.”

A native of Fargo Moorhead, Matt started dancing at the age of eight, under the tutelage of mother Kathy Gasper, whose professional credits include the Broadway stage, television, cabarets, Milwaukee Ballet, Weisbaden Ballet, Illinois and Chicago Ballets, the Florentine Opera, and the Chicago Opera Ballet. In daily private lessons at her studio, then Block 6 downtown, Mrs. Gasper worked with Matt on ballet technique and discipline. “She was really my coach, not my mom,” Matt says. Smiling, he adds, “It was kind of a love/hate thing. She pushed me hard, but I needed it.”

A couple years later, he took a short break from dancing. “I used to wait for my mom to get done teaching. On Saturday mornings, it was a teenage jazz class. There were girls everywhere, primping and fixing their hair,” Matt blushes, but only for a second. “This one girl caught me staring at her, and she took her leotard strap down, did a little shoulder roll, and winked at me on her way into the studio. I was so embarrassed I quit dancing.”

From there he focused on soccer and martial arts, studying both Karate and Tae Kwon Do. “I was an angry kid, and my parents channeled that into martial arts.” A black belt in Okinawa Kenpo Karate and purple belt in Tae Kwan Do, Matt incorporates “the physical and personal aspects of the martial arts-discipline, strength, and attitude into ballet,” using these forms in dance.

By age thirteen, Matt was back at the ballet barre, adding jazz and tap to his lessons and contemplating dance as a career.

He set out after high school to join Cleveland San Jose Ballet, the fifth largest company in the US at the time. Matt steadily climbed the ranks from company member to principal dancer, though he admits it wasn’t easy. “I used to call my parents and whine that I wasn’t good enough to be there. For my first production I was at the back of the stage holding a bowl of fruit in Swan Lake,” he says, adding that those five years provided an amazing dance education.
Matt then honed his talents in musical theatre, following in father Eddie Gasper’s footsteps to New York City, where he performed off Broadway and studied under Luigi and David Howard. Later, in Thoroughly Modern Millie, he suffered a knee injury that prevented him from making his Broadway debut. “It was heartbreaking,” he says, watching the crumpled napkin he bats between his index fingers. “Like taking hands away from a sculptor.”

Down and out, Matt got a few part-time jobs bartending, but found himself sucked into the New York City nightlife and stopped dancing and auditioning altogether. He soon left the party scene, and after performing Fiddler on the Roof in California, returned to Fargo and began teaching.

“My goal with FM Ballet and the School,” says Mr. Matt, “is to bring to Fargo Moorhead the caliber of professional dance that I was exposed to. Dance is fulfilling-all aspects of it, but especially the teaching, educating, and inspiring young minds. If I can get people to be as fulfilled by the art form as I am, I’ve done my job.”

Beyond the professional ballet company and dance studio, Matt has been a prime mover of the local breakdancing scene. In venues like The Hub, The Aquarium, and NDSU, he dances in a group of five guys that formed about a year ago, called Ground Control. “It’s important to be well-rounded as a dancer. Breakdancing is my newfound passion,” he says. “The athleticism and technique of breakdancing are definitely there, and ballet is great preparation. Both need the same center of gravity.”

FM Ballet is the only company in the area with a multidisciplinary repertoire utilizing the dance techniques of ballet, modern, jazz, and tap. A guiding principal in his artistic direction of Fargo Moorhead Ballet has been to seek collaborations with other arts organizations and other mediums. “The performing arts community here is very healthy,” he says. “There are so many organizations that offer theatre, music, dance, singing. It’s almost oversaturated. Rather than keeping our expertise separate, we need to get past artistic ego and collaborate to make great art. ‘Art for art’s sake.’ It’s the only way to keep the arts alive and reach new audiences.”

Past collaborations include Jazz Arts Group and Fargo Theatre, with planning underway for a performance with Fargo Moorhead Symphony Orchestra. At the Plains Arts Museum’s 12th Annual Spring Gala this May, Fargo Moorhead Ballet will perform Living Sculptures, a visionary piece that brings Rodin’s classic sculptures-among them The Thinker-to life through movement.

And this reporter’s personal favorite of the 2008-9 season, a spoken word ballet: readers on stage with the dancers, who interpret the poetry through movement.