Eugene Louis Faccuito

Who is Eugene Louis Faccuito?

Eugene Louis "Luigi" Faccuito is an American jazz dancer, choreographer, teacher and innovator who is best known for creating a jazz exercise technique. The Luigi Warm Up Technique is an influential training program that promotes body alignment, balance, core strength, and "feeling from the inside." It is also used for rehabilitation. This method became the world’s first standard technique for teaching jazz and musical theater dance. Luigi developed the technique, which consists of a series of ballet-based exercises, for his own rehabilitation after suffering paralyzing injuries in a car accident at the age of twenty one. Determined to dance again, he first learned to regain control of his body by what he uses as a cornerstone of his technique – namely, to “lengthen and stretch the body without strain," and “put the good side into the bad side.’’ He then focused on a way “to stabilize himself – as if he were pressing down on an invisible barre. His efforts paid off because he went on to have a successful dance career, and became a world renowned jazz teacher.

Talent and perseverance enabled Luigi to work in every facet of show business, before and after the accident. His jobs have included working in big bands with Ted Lewis; Hollywood films with Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Doris Day and Cyd Charisse; burlesque with Lili St. Cyr; television with Red Skelton and bandleader Les Brown; on Broadway with Ethel Merman and George Goebel—and for over five decades, he and his students have spread his technique globally.