Phil LaDuca

“Fairy Tales Can Come True…”

Posted by Phil LaDuca, Sep 14, 2016 0 comments


Phil LaDuca

“…it can happen to you.” Because it happened to me!

Who would have thought that a kid from the south side of Chicago, who taught himself to sing listening to the soundtrack of “West Side Story”, (and Frank Sinatra records), would someday become known internationally as “the Shoemaker to the Stars”?

Crazy, no? (sounds like Tevye from “Fiddler on the Roof,” right?).

Though most will recognize the name “LaDuca” as the best dance shoes in the business, before there were the shoes, there was Phil LaDuca. (I’ll give you a hint: who’s got the best legs in the photo?)

I spent a lot of my childhood dreaming of the world outside of our close knit, ethnic neighborhood and I’ve never stopped dreaming.

First came fronting a rock band at the age of thirteen. A few bands and years later, I found myself at DePaul University studying law when the acting bug bit me. I soon left school to pursue theatre. The first show I landed was playing Tony in “West Side Story” (talk about starting at the top!).

Okay, here’s where things really got weird. I returned to singing in rock bands to support myself (barely), and my new love; dance. To make up for lost time, I danced six to eight hours a day on scholarship wherever they would take me: Stone and Camryn Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance Company and the Joel Hall dancers. 

But I pushed myself too hard, too fast and unfortunately tore my ACL and my dreams of being Baryshnikov were over.

But because I could sing, I was pushed into musical theater, which I knew nothing about, and I loved it.

Onward and upward; from Muny Opera to Broadway! WOW! What luck and good fortune. Within no time I was in “American Dance Machine” under the legendary Lee Theodore, working with such greats as Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Ona White, Danny Daniels, Patricia Birch, Ann Reinking and Chita Rivera.

Soon I carved a niche as a song and dance man, doing “Brigadoon” for Agnes DeMille (with fellow sword dancer Jerry Mitchell), “Pirates of Penzance” with Kevin Kline, and the original understudy for the Gene Kelly role in “Singin’ In the Rain” for Twyla Tharp. I also toured in “Camelot” with Richard Harris, played Tulsa in “Gypsy” and starred in several productions of “Me and My Girl” as Bill Snipson. 

Later I turned to directing and choreographing in Berlin, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Budapest, Rome and St. Petersburg (where I was dubbed the “Godfather of Jazz” as the first American jazz dance teacher in Russia).

Ah, fate … I popped my disc out in my back choreographing in Vienna in 2000 and well, the rest, as they say, “is history” (or something like that) and I became a shoe designer.

And somehow my boots (and shoes) were made for more than just walking, as I was knighted “the Gucci of Dance Shoes” by The New York Times as LaDuca Shoes have graced the feet of luminaries and seen all over Broadway. Just keep dreaming! “It could happen to you!”

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