Jazz Dance: Luigi

Luigi one of the Fathers of Jazz dance
Luigi was born in Steubenville, Ohio, on March 20, 1925. He was one of 11 children in his family. He was born with the name Eugene Louis Facciuto but, later was renamed Luigi by his mentor Gene Kelly because he told him “There are too many Genes!”Luigi’s brother tony taught him to sing and dance at a young age. Eugene began singing and dancing for pennies on street corners. He performed in local talent shows and toured as a singer with a performing orchestra named Bernie Davis Orchestra. Eugene was winning local dance contests by the time he was 10 and went on to perform in vaudeville as a singer, dancer and acrobat, touring the Midwest and Northeast. Before he was out of his teens he was touring
This interrupted his rising performing career. He earned three gold stars while in the Philippines and New Guinea from the Navy. When he returned from the army he moved to Hollywood and studied ballet with Madame Bronislava Nijinska. He wanted a more diverse dance style so he switched to Falcon Studios. He studied with director Edith Jane, Michel Fokine and Eugene Loring. In December 1946 Luigi got into a horrific car crash. He was left in a coma for 11 days due to a basilar skull fracture. A side effect of basilar fractured skull, he developed crossed eyes and double vision, and paralyzed on the left side of his face and right side of his body. He was hospitalized and unconscious for three months. The doctors were afraid he would never be able to walk again. Luigi was determined to dance again so while he was hospitalized he practiced a set of angular port de bras created by Micho Ito, a eurhythmic dancer. He adjusted Ito’s arm motions to create stability. He created twenty-four arm motions. A year later after his accident he was back in the studio. He created exercises that helped his injured body. He incorporated movements of the head, shoulders, and neck called epaulement. Luigi returned to the stage