UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Michele Dunleavy, professor of dance and 2024-25 Penn State Laureate, will present “Leadership Unscripted: The Power of Improvisation” from 7:30-8:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20, in the HUB-Robeson Center's Freeman Auditorium.
This lecture is part of the Mark Luchinsky Memorial Lecture series, which is free and open to the public. Seats can be reserved online.
Attendees will learn from Dunleavy’s experience as a dancer and lifelong improviser. She will speak about how improvisation has led her to work in dance and accessible theater. There also will be interactive elements, as well as a performance from Dunleavy and guest musician Eric Ian Farmer.
Dunleavy is an award-winning educator, choreographer and performer. She is a faculty member in the Musical Theatre Program in Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture, where she teaches tap and jazz dance techniques and contributes original choreography for Penn State Centre Stage. Professionally, she has choreographed and performed extensively throughout the mid-Atlantic region and her choreography has been presented in Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, New York, Maryland, Washington D.C. and West Virginia. Dunleavy's choreography lies at the intersection of sound and movement and includes projects such as Steel Valley Rhythms, a percussive dance piece that investigates the connections between place, memory and embodiment as experienced by generations of Pennsylvania iron and steel workers.
Dunleavy is actively engaged in making dance and theater more accessible and inclusive. She recently worked on the world premiere of Indescribable with Phamaly Theatre Company, a disability affirmative organization based in Denver. Since 2016, Dunleavy has been leading Let's Dance!, an all ages, all abilities community dance workshop sponsored by the Center for the Performing Arts at University Park, and she currently volunteers with the For Good Troupe, a local organization providing performance opportunities for individuals with Down syndrome.
The Luchinsky Memorial Lecture Series was endowed by family and friends to honor the memory of Mark Luchinsky through the support of a speaker who exemplifies intellectual honesty, personal integrity and joy in learning. Luchinsky, a Schreyer Scholar and biochemistry major, graduated first in his class in 1992 from Thomas Jefferson High School and was a member of the Penn State Golden Key Society and the Alpha Epsilon Delta Premedical Honor Society. Known for his intellectual honesty and integrity, Luchinsky enjoyed the study of all subjects and loved the classics, sports, poetry, history and geography.