| In the interest of speed and timeliness, this story is fed directly from the Associated Press newswire and may contain spelling or grammatical errors. |
Renowned Congolese dancer, drummer killed in crash
Monday June 16, 2003OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) Internationally renowned Congolese dancer Malonga Casquelourd has died in a car crash. He was 55.
Casquelourd, who was returning from his niece's graduation party, was hit head-on early Sunday by a suspected drunken driver going the wrong way on a one-way street, police said.
Martin Burgermyer, 35, 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.
Casquelourd, a dancer, drummer and choreographer, had spent half his life teaching the moves and music of his Congolese homeland at the Alice Arts Center in Oakland.
He developed a following at an early age, as a 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.
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,'' Muisi-Kongo Malonga told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Fua Dia Congo is scheduled to perform this weekend at the Ethnic Dance Festival in San Francisco.
Friends and family are planning a drumming event to honor Casquelourd Thursday at Alice Arts Center. The public is invited to bring their instruments and join in.
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