Lucas Fedele
Dance is communication, and the great desire is to speak clearly, and beautifully, and with inevitability.
Martha Graham
Lucas teaches Dance in Acting/Musical Theatre area and, in association with colleagues from Design, Production and Management, produces Dance/Light which provides students of all years and areas the opportunity to collaborate in creating new work.
Lucas Fedele is an artist, educator, director, choreographer, and performer devoted to the vitalization of theatre and to the development of work rooted in embodied storytelling.
Lucas centers the body as a primary instrument of dramatic expression. He approaches training in classical dance techniques and participating in oral traditions as means toward cultivating truthful, versatile performers. Their teaching incorporates consent-based, anti-racist, and trauma-sensitive practices and a rigorous learning environment in which students develop technical skill alongside agency.
An educator for more than twenty years, Fedele has worked with students across a broad range of ages, disciplines, and levels of experience. He has presented lectures and masterclasses in dance, theatre, and pedagogy at New York University, Point Park University, and Slippery Rock University, served as a Visiting Instructor for Point Park University’s International Summer Dance program, and as faculty in the Theater Department at Pittsburgh CAPA.
As a director and choreographer, Lucas is interested in both preserving theatrical traditions and discovering new ways for movement to speak to contemporary audiences. He has developed new work, contributed to world premieres, reconstructed landmark choreography, and reimagined classic musicals in Pittsburgh, New York, and internationally. He served as Assistant Choreographer to Billy Porter for the Pittsburgh premiere of POP! and has reconstructed choreography and staging by Bob Fosse, Michael Bennett, Michael Peters, and Susan Stroman. Recently, Lucas co-directed and choreographed Agnus Teaches Acting, a new play he created with School of Drama alumni Zanny Laird and Treasure Treasure.
Lucas’ performance career encompasses film, television, Broadway national and international tours (Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, Hello, Dolly!), concert dance, and more than forty regional theatre productions including Arena Stage’s inaugural Oklahoma! and sixteen productions with the Pittsburgh CLO, where he received the Julia Deberson Award in 2014.
A Pittsburgh native, Lucas trained at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre School and is an alumnus of Point Park University’s School of Dance. He is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, and SDC.