Because ‘Movement’ and ‘You’ Were Always a Synonym
For Lucίa, a collaboration begins with the project: what it wants to communicate, who is taking part, and how the movement will be encountered. Lucía then looks at what is already present in the people involved, observing how they stand, walk, pause, and respond to one another. Those details become material for guided improvisation, movement tasks, and rehearsal, allowing a shared vocabulary to develop from the performers themselves.
The Free Community Dance and Movement Lab
In 2026, Lucía developed and directed the Free Community Dance and Movement Lab, hosted at the University of Cincinnati’s CCM and Clifton Cultural Arts Center. The lab brought their teaching into a community setting, recognizing the embodied knowledge each participant contributes regardless of experience.
Its proposed teaching frame centers on participation and creative autonomy: offering people ways to begin, then giving them room to make decisions and contribute to the group’s exploration during weekly two-hour sessions.
The Approach
Movement material is composed and refined in relation to the brief. For a fashion presentation, the focus might be pace, presence, and a performer’s relationship to a garment; for the camera, the scale and timing of a gesture; for theatre, the physical life of a character or ensemble. In a class or community setting, the emphasis can shift toward experimentation and helping participants recognize their own capacity to make movement choices.
Give the story a body.
Lucía Duque is a movement director, choreographer, performer, and educator working across live performance, film, fashion, and community settings. They attend to the details through which a body communicates: the weight of a step, a hesitation, the distance one person keeps from another. Working with artists, creative teams, and organizations, they develop movement that gives an idea a physical form and a performance its particular character.
Past Trajectory
A choreographer, playwright, and actor, Lucίa Duque is a movement director focusing primarily on the study and interpretation of bodily movement as a shared element of dance and theatre. Originally an undergraduate dramatic arts major at Universidad Central studying under Teatro Libre, they earned an MFA in Movement: Directing and Teaching from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in the United Kingdom.
Lucίa seeks to combine their interests in movement and cultural theory, including somatics, sexuality, gender and decolonial studies, through being a practitioner of engagement within the body regardless of practice or form of movement.
Their drive to create a movement of exchange and ideas within their creative collaboration process is derived from their mentorship with Juan Pablo Gonzáles and the Interdisciplinary Dance and Theater Creation Laboratory. Lucίa strives to create a sequence of movements that incorporate diverse voices while uplifting communities significantly impacted by their social and economic environments. During their time in the United Kingdom, they began working within indigenous and traditional dance forms as a member of the Colombian folklore group Somos Chibchas; together with other dancers, they wrote, directed, and performed in the multi-format dance-theater piece Buscando a Marino. Developed with the support of the Truth Commission, the work was presented in London and Edinburgh. This project fostered collaborations with artists across various disciplines, including visual arts, music, and filmmaking.
Upon transitioning to the United States in 2021, they began their career as an Acting Professor, Movement Director, and Choreographer at University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). Lucίa developed their ability to generate awareness of the body and creative capacities within the individual through their work as a Teacher and Instructor in various programs and schools; including Latonia Elementary, Community Montessori, and Covington Classical Academy. They designed and taught dance curriculum engaged in traditional dances from the Global South, incorporating various pools of knowledge such as history, geography, and culture within these dance classes. Lucίa developed and implemented a bilingual dance program focused on Latin American dance styles at Roberts Academy. Lucίa was a Movement Instructor at the Movement Lab (LOM) with the dance collective Pones in Cincinnati. With Pones, they created and presented around seven choreographies in various venues, including the Cincinnati Art Museum. One of these pieces, Knowing Sunrise — developed in collaboration with poet Camille Jones — was presented at the Midwest Sustainability Summit and Philanthropy Forward ‘24. This work focused on environmental degradation and its impact on oppressed populations resulting from inequality. In 2026, Lucίa developed and directed the Free Community Dance and Movement Lab hosted within University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and Clifton Cultural Arts Center, in which they brought their ability to elevate the autonomy and ability to transform dance into a collective language that honors the unique embodied knowledge each person brings regardless of experience.
Their work is multidisciplinary within the film industry as a Dancer in music videos — such as JJ & The Mood’s “Gonna Sleep Good Tonight” — and leadership as a Movement Director for videos including Victoria Lekson’s “Circles” and Pablo Barriga’s “Ven Pa’ Acá”. Their latest experience as a Playwright has led to the development and performance of a solo dance-theater piece titled Good… Girl?, which was presented at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival.
Experience & Knowledge
Onstage, a gesture lives within the whole scene; on camera, it can become the scene’s focus. In a fashion presentation, pace and posture can shape how a garment is encountered. Lucía brings movement direction into these relationships between a performer, a creative idea, and the people watching.
Their credits include The Light Chasers, presented by Know Theatre and the University of Cincinnati’s CCM, alongside movement direction for Victoria Lekson’s Circles and Pablo Barriga’s Ven Pa’ Acá. These projects connect their theatrical experience with the demands of movement made for the camera.
Project Focus: The Light Chasers
Lucía contributed movement direction to The Light Chasers, a collaboration between Know Theatre and CCM. Their contribution can be framed around the physical relationships that help a production hold together: how performers share a space, how an ensemble moves as a group, and how individual choices contribute to the larger dramatic world.
Lucía’s choreography has been presented in theatres, museums, festivals, and community gatherings. They welcome commissions for these settings, alongside fashion presentations, live music, brand events, and other projects that give movement a central role.
Project Focus: Knowing Sunrise
Developed with poet Camille Jones, Knowing Sunrise examines environmental degradation and its unequal effects on communities. Through movement, these concerns become questions of the body: what it carries, what supports it, and how people respond when the conditions around them become uncertain.† The work has been presented at the Midwest Sustainability Summit and Philanthropy Forward ’24.
The proposed creative thread is the relationship between individual vulnerability and collective responsibility, connecting the intimate scale of a body with a larger social and environmental question.
Other Selected Work:
Falling in Grace was choreographed for Eunoia at the Contemporary Arts Center. Lucía’s work with Pones also includes I Was Here, created for the Women’s Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s 30th anniversary, and choreography presented through the Cincinnati Art Museum’s Art After Dark program.
In Lucía’s dance theatre work, the body has a part in the telling. Movement and text share the performance, allowing physical action to develop a character, sustain an image, or carry a relationship beyond what is spoken.
Project Focus: Buscando a Marino
Created with fellow members of Colombian folkloric dance group Somos Chibchas, Buscando a Marino brought Lucía’s work in movement and theatre into a shared process of writing, directing, and performance. Supported by the Truth Commission, the production was presented in London and Edinburgh.
The project offers a way to understand tradition as something carried and interpreted by living bodies. Its collaborative framing connects cultural knowledge with the creation of a new performance, allowing the experience of the artists to become part of the work’s language.†
Project Focus: Good… Girl?
Presented at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, Good… Girl? brings Lucía’s writing and performance into a solo dance theatre piece. The format places the relationship between text and movement within a single performer, concentrating the work’s dramatic and physical choices in one body.
Dance is the foundation of Lucía’s training and continues to inform how they approach acting, writing, and performance. They studied dramatic arts at Universidad Central with Teatro Libre and later taught Acting at the University of Cincinnati’s CCM.
Their performance experience includes solo and collaborative dance theatre, including Good… Girl? and Buscando a Marino. They bring to character work an interest in how a person becomes recognizable through physical choices: the space they claim, the habits they repeat, and the ways they respond to others.
Lucía’s dance experience includes work with Colombian folkloric dance group Somos Chibchas, original dance theatre, and performance for the camera. Their interest in movement includes the cultural knowledge it carries and the choices a dancer makes in interpreting a work.
Selected performances include Buscando a Marino, Good… Girl?, and JJ & The Mood’s music video Gonna Sleep Good Tonight. Lucía welcomes further collaborations in live performance, music videos, fashion and editorial projects, and work developed with visual artists.
Lucía writes with performance in mind: the person speaking, the action unfolding, and the meanings a body can bring to a line. Their writing draws on their experience as an actor and movement practitioner, connecting the possibilities of a text with the people who will inhabit it.
Their work includes Good… Girl?, a solo dance theatre piece presented at the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, and Buscando a Marino, written with fellow artists from Somos Chibchas. They welcome collaborations in original theatre and interdisciplinary performance, particularly where writing and movement can develop together.
Lucía leads movement experiences for performers, students, and community groups, including people with no formal dance training. Their teaching invites participants to become more attentive to how they move and more confident in making their own choices.
Workshops can be developed for schools, universities, arts organizations, community spaces, and creative teams. The focus can include movement for performance, collaborative creation, dance in its cultural context, or an introduction to movement as a form of expression.
A session can begin with something familiar: a walk, an everyday gesture, a response to music. Through guided exploration, participants try variations, notice what changes, and discover how their choices relate to those of others. These simple starting points create material for shared movement and more deliberate expression.†
Project Focus: Free Community Dance and Movement Lab
In 2026, Lucía developed and directed the Free Community Dance and Movement Lab, hosted at the University of Cincinnati’s CCM and Clifton Cultural Arts Center. The lab brought their teaching into a community setting, recognizing the embodied knowledge each participant contributes regardless of experience.
Its proposed teaching frame centers on participation and creative autonomy: offering people ways to begin, then giving them room to make decisions and contribute to the group’s exploration.†
Tell Lucía what you are making.
Reach out about a production, presentation, performance, class, or collaboration. Share the idea, who will take part, and the role you would like movement to play. Your location, proposed dates, and budget, if known, will help establish the scope of the conversation.
For creative teams, a brief, treatment, or visual reference can provide a useful starting point. For educators and community organizations, tell Lucía about the group and what you hope participants will have the opportunity to explore.
