“It’s what I do. That’s what I lived. That’s what I know,” said 102-year-old Evelyn Couturier, of Cottonwood, about her career as a dancer ahead of her birthday celebration with family on Friday, Dec. 29.
“[Dancing] was the love of my life and I thought I was going to be a ballerina,” Couturier said in an informational video that the Verde Valley Caregivers Coalition produced for its annual gala last month. “That was my goal, all through school, all through high school and eventually I got to work at Music Hall [and] The Roxy, those basically turned out to be jobs. And they had just started drafting the young men for the war, which hadn’t started yet, of course. And they started USO, which was United Service Organizations. And I was fortunate enough to be in the first show that left New York to go around the country and entertain at the camps.”
Couturier was born and raised in Canton, Ohio, where her father worked cleaning a local dance studio during the Great Depression and her mother prepared meals for the two men who ran the studio.
When she was 16, she attempted to relocate to New York City, but returned home a few months later because of financial difficulties. Her second attempt at making it in the Big Apple saw her land a spot in the Roxyettes dance company.
“At the time, way back when, it was the Roxy Theatre in New York,” Couturier explained. “The Rockettes weren’t even there. The Roxy was doing so well that this fella that had The Rockets down in St. Louis, built a theatre and moved them up to New York. So then it was Roxyettes and the Rockettes and it got to be a little confusing.”
Couturier can still recall the audition process for the company.
“They asked you for some ballet, they asked you for different tap steps and they [would] also do a few steps and then have you repeat them and see how fast you caught on and how well you could do them,” Couturier said. “There was a lot more to tap back then than there is now, and it’s hard to explain. But anyway, [the audition] was basically how well you were able to catch on to the steps they want to give you.”
In the run-up to U.S. entry into World War II, the USO was incorporated on Feb. 4, 1941, to provide an organization that could work to boost the morale of the armed forces and civilian support for a foreign war. Its creation followed the passage of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, the nation’s first peacetime draft, and Couturier remembered touring the training camps before the war.
“There were just kids in tents learning to play soldier and it was pretty heart-wrenching,” Couturier said. “The kids, the boys were drafted were so young. My future husband [Carl Woods], I was going with him, but I wasn’t married to him [yet]. He went away. He didn’t come back for almost four-and-a half years and that’s a long time in a person’s life when they’re so young. [But] that’s me at my age talking.”
“The boys in the camps were so excited to see us,” Couturier said. “Anything for change and really and truly, there was nothing out there until we got there because we were the first troupe of dancers to leave to entertain the boys, and I feel very honored to be one of them and they just were so happy to have some entertainment. I mean they didn’t do movie nights, they didn’t do all. This was right at the very, very beginning when most of them were living in tents.”
The austere living conditions of the camps stood in stark contrast to the Hollywood glitz and glamor that some of the other entertainers who did USO tours were used to experiencing. Rita Hayworth, who traveled with the group for six months, still holds a special place in Couturier’s heart.
“She knew what it was like to be a chorus dancer and she would stand in the wings and help us change clothes and be there for us,” Couturier said. “She was a wonderful person. The other [entertainers] came, they had to have their own places, they were more snooty-type actresses. A lot of difference between people.”
Following the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, “Evelyn’s dance teachers answered the call of duty, one at the outset of the war, and the other drafted three years later,” VVCC stated in a press release. “To keep their beloved studio alive, they turned to Evelyn, even though she had never taught dance before. She accepted the challenge and ran the studio successfully until the owners returned after the war ended.”
After the end of World War II in 1945, Couturier and Carl Woods married and had a girl, a boy and then twin girls. The family moved to Arizona in 1956, where Woods died at the age of 49. Couturier remarried and relocated to the White Mountains. She has been a resident of Cottonwood since 1990 and is currently living with one of her daughters.
“During her time at Northern Arizona Healthcare, Evelyn learned about the Verde Valley Caregivers Coalition through Dr. [Bruce] Peek and became a supporter,” the VVCC press release said. “In July 2023, Evelyn decided to become a client. Her daughter, who runs a business in Jerome, cannot always provide transportation for her, so transportation is the primary service that she receives.”
Couturier attributes her generally good health and longevity to dance and exercise. She typically exercises her legs in the mornings and frequently does seated tap dance as a precautionary measure.
“At night I do my upper body exercises,” Couturier said. “Don’t ask me why. It’s just something that I’ve worked into and that works for me. It keeps me limber.
The only reason I use a cane is because I’m not quite as steady as I used to be, and I don’t want to fall and get hurt and become a burden to anybody.”
“I’m still dancing,” Couturier said in the video. “I do it on my own. I danced at my 100. If the good Lord allows me, come this December, I’ll be 102, and that’s my tale.”
