Famed
Dancer dies as car hit head on
Other
driver was drunk, cops say
World
renowned Congolese dancer and drummer Malonga Casquelourd was killed
in Oakland early Sunday morning when a suspected drunken driver
crashed head-on into his car while going the wrong way on a one-way
street, police said.
Casquelourd, who was 55, was on his way home from a niece's graduation ceremony
shortly after 2 a.m. when a Toyota 4Runner traveling the wrong way in front
of 1 Lakeside Drive slammed into his 1972 Mercedes-Benz sedan.
The driver of the Toyota, 35-year-old Martin Burgermyer of Oakland, suffered
cuts and bruises and was taken to Highland Hospital, where police arrested
him for suspected drunken driving and vehicular manslaughter, Oakland Police
Officer Michael Nichelini said. Burgermyer was jailed after being treated
for his injuries.
Burgermyer, an East Bay sales representative for a San Carlos food broker, "made
spontaneous statements about his inebriation," Nichelini said, "and
there was an odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from him."
News of Casquelourd's death shocked the Alice Arts Center in Oakland, where
the international choreographer had spent half his life teaching the moves
and music of his Congolese homeland.
" It's like jazz losing John Coltrane," said Tacuma King, a percussionist
and resident of the Alice Arts Center. Like many of the artists who live and
work in the Center, King went to the bottom floor cafe Sunday to share stories
and reminisce over the many snapshots of Casquelourd that decorate the walls.
" He is the pillar of this place," Oakland Ballet dancer Victor Temple
said.
A distinguished choreographer, drummer, singer and university instructor, Casquelourd
was one of the first people to turn Congolese dancing into an art form
in the United States.
" This is a terrible loss -- Malonga was an outstanding artist," said
Allan Ulrich, associate editor of Dance Magazine and former dance critic for
The Chronicle and the Examiner.
Casquelourd developed a following at an early age, as a talented child dancer
for Community Fetes, a network of indigenous cultural centers near Brazzaville,
central Congo, where he grew up.
By 1965, he was a principal dancer with the National Congolese Dance Company.
He toured Africa, Europe and the United States and later moved to Europe
as choreographer and principal performer with Le Ballet Diaboua in Paris.
In 1972, he went to New York and co-founded Tanawa, the first central African
dance company in the United States, and taught at several New York- area
schools.
When Casquelourd moved to Oakland in the mid-1970s, he joined CitiCentre Dance
Theatre to teach Congolese dance and drum classes. He created his own dance
troupe, Fua Dia Congo, which practices in the Alice Arts Center.
" He never missed a class in 26 years," said Haninah Abdullah, operations
director of CitiCentre Dance Theatre. "He's the big papa bear -- warm, jovial,
always smiling.".
Since 1977, he'd been teaching Africa studies at San Francisco State University.
" When I first met him in the 1970s, he told me he was a dancer, but I didn't
believe him," said C.K. Ladzekpo, director of the African Music Program
at UC Berkeley. "But he got on that stage and started moving his stomach
in waves. I'd never seen anything like it before."
His Fua Dia Congo troupe quickly became a regular attraction at the San Francisco
Ethnic Dance Festival and the African Cultural Festival in Oakland. Fua
Dia Congo was also invited to dance in Texas, Washington, D.C., and at
Jacob's Pillow in Massachusetts, considered one of the most prestigious
dance houses in the country.
" He was our single best dancer, even at his age," said Fua Dia Congo
dancer Tina Combs. "Wherever I travel for workshops or performances . .
. the dancers all say they were trained by him."
Fua Dia Congo has about 25 members, including Casquelourd's four children:
daughters Muisi-Kongo Malonga, 22, and Lungusu Malonga, 19; and sons Kiazi
Malonga, 21, and Boueta-Mbgongo Malonga, 6.
" Our father gave us a strong sense of self, common sense and a pride and
confidence in our culture," said Muisi-Kongo Malonga.
Fua Dia Congo is scheduled to perform this weekend at the Ethnic Dance Festival
in San Francisco.
In Congolese tradition, friends and family are planning a drumming event to
honor Casquelourd's passing, at 6 p.m. Thursday at Alice Arts Center, 1428
Alice St., Oakland. The public is invited to bring their instruments and
join in.
Meredith
May, Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writers Monday, June 16, 2003
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