2008 Woodie Awards
An overlooked sport: Instructor gets physical with 'jazz dance'
Shipra Raj
Issue date: 9/25/06 Section: Sports
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He doesn't carry stress, worries and tension to the work place as others do, but, instead, brings smiles and dancing feet.
"There is nothing unusual about me, to me!" says Warren "Juba" Lucas, head of the dance department at De Anza College.
He was born and brought up in Brooklyn, New York with two brothers and one sister. When he announced he was joining the North Carolina Dance/Theatre, a professional regional touring company, his mother said, "All this is fine but when are you going to get a job?"
Lucas began dancing as a high school student in New York with the Ron Davis Dancers, where he performed with jazz music giants Jimmy Smith and Mary Lou Williams. He performed at Carnegie Hall with Oliver Nelson and his orchestra, and toured Mexico for the State Department with Thad Jones and Mel Luis.
He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the North Carolina School of Arts, and a Master of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. He danced in Hollywood for ten years and appeared in a dozen national and international television shows. He was in "The Prince and the Pauper" with Ringo Starr, "Hollywood's Diamond Jubilee," and "Just Plain Cher." He worked with top choreographers Jaime Rogers, Allen Johnson, Joe Layton and Donald McKayle.
Lucas worked as a night club performer, appearing with Lola Falana, Dionne Warwick, Juliet Prowse and Denice Williams. He was in pop music videos with Weird Al, The Weather Girls, Klymax and Thelma Housten, sometimes acting as choreographer as well. His favorite dancer is Paul Robeson.
Pushing his long locks behind, which he says, "is less expensive than a haircut,'' he strides the floor of the dance studio with snaps, claps, swirls and swings. His light frame and toned muscles are a cause of envy for many of his young students.
Lucas has traveled internationally and performed extensively in Europe. He would like to see Africa and Asia. Given a chance to live his life over again, he says he would learn to build things with his hands. During his leisure, he cares for bonsai plants.
Teaching ballet, contemporary dance and jazz gives his body a total aerobic workout, and cycling completes his exercise routine.
He prefers California to New York, which he says is "more pushy, competitive, insecure and overpopulated." Though he's been called "laid back," California offers him "space to live and create.'' His daughter, however, lives in New York, and is studying theatre.
His advice to students is: "Use your bodies before you lose your bodies.''
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