Meet Penny & Lucas – Dancing the Blues with Soul and Storytelling

by Eda Ozdek for GTBF 3rd edition

Guest teachers at this year’s Good Time Blues Festival, Penny and Lucas bring a distinctive voice to the Blues dance community. Hailing from Taiwan, their dancing is rooted in deep connection, musical sensitivity, and cultural respect. Known for their fluid, expressive style, they blend technique with emotion, offering a dance experience that is both playful and profound. In this interview, Penny and Lucas share their reflections on Blues as a cultural and emotional language, the importance of honoring its roots, and how their own journey continues to evolve through teaching and dancing.

What aspects of Blues culture resonated with you most personally?

For us, Blues is life. Life is made up of stories—full of joy, pain, struggles, and healing. Blues embraces all of these emotions. No matter what you’re going through, you can always find a connection through Blues. When we dance, we often feel like we’re returning to something very raw and real—as human beings connecting with each other. What really speaks to us is the freedom of expression and the celebration of individuality. Blues encourages you to be yourself, to be present, and to dance your truth. Every dance becomes a personal dialogue.

Can you share an example of a moment when you re-evaluated your own approach or learned something new about cultural responsibility?

In the beginning, when we taught close embrace, we focused mostly on the technical aspects—like posture, weight shifts, and connection. But as we deepened our understanding of the history and culture behind it, we realized it wasn’t just a physical technique. It holds emotional and historical meaning; it reflects how people found comfort and connection during challenging times. That shifted our approach. We started incorporating cultural context into our classes. When students understand the “why” behind the movement, they’re more open and willing to truly embrace it.

How do you integrate cultural education into your classes or events?

When we design a class, we do our best to research the cultural background related to the topic. Then we share this knowledge through storytelling, showing pictures or playing videos during the class. We don’t just teach “how to dance,” but also explain “why it’s danced this way,” and where it comes from. We emphasize that understanding the roots of this dance is just as important as learning the steps. We also encourage students to respect the culture, to go beyond technique, and to explore the meaning and spirit behind what they’re dancing.

What have been your biggest personal takeaways in your journey with Blues?

One of our biggest takeaways is that the deeper we dive into the culture, the more it naturally shapes our dancing. It’s not something we have to force—it just starts to show in how we move, how we connect, and how we express ourselves. We’ve learned that focusing only on technique isn’t enough. To truly embody Blues, we need to approach it from multiple angles—with respect, curiosity, and openness. That’s when the dance becomes something real, something alive, and something deeply human.