25482: (news) Chamberlain: Dancer's Journey Home (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By JIM SUHR

   EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. June 26 (AP) -- With a tribute on a Mississippi
River bridge, Katherine Dunham basked in another ovation Friday as the
famed dancer-choreographer prepares to move back to her longtime home.
   This city had been the 96-year-old Dunham's base for more than 30 years
before the survivor of lifelong arthritis and more than a dozen knee
operations moved to New York in 1999. She soon plans to return here for
good, and her house is being made wheelchair accessible.
   During the 20-minute ceremony on the Eads Bridge, traffic was halted and
St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay read a proclamation dedicating the day to the
woman behind the "Dunham technique" -- a combination of movements from
traditional dances in Africa and the Caribbean.
   "Thank you, because modern dance would not be what it is without your
influences and your pioneering efforts," Slay said. "You taught so many
thousands around the world how to dance."
   Said a smiling Dunham, in a soft voice: "I feel very much at home."
   When Dunham lacked money to make her home -- the same two-story, brick
building she's had since Lyndon Johnson occupied the White House -- able to
accommodate her wheelchair, folks pitched in, in many cases donating the
labor and materials. (A fundraising dinner for Dunham is planned for
Saturday evening at City Hall's council chambers.)
   Workers have added a patio to the back of the house -- just down the
street from a museum that bears her name and includes her art collection
and some of her stage outfits.
   A wheelchair lift has been installed, too, but not everything has gone
as planned.
   Organizers' hopes of getting the renovations completed in time for
Dunham to move in Friday were dashed -- a lift that would hoist her
wheelchair to the second floor remains undelivered, and workers still need
to insulate some walls, replace some plumbing and complete landscaping.
   The Chicago-born Dunham earned an anthropology degree at the University
of Chicago, leading her to Haiti as a researcher in 1935 and to pioneering
work as a dancer and choreographer who injected African and Caribbean
influences into the European-dominated dance world.
   Dunham went on to perform worldwide, typically with her own dance troupe
that bore her name, and won fans worldwide through the 1960s.
   Along the way, she starred in movies and choreographed "Aida" for the
Metropolitan Opera and musicals such as "Cabin in the Sky" for Broadway.
   As a daughter of mixed-race parents, Dunham often fought racism. Her
activism included a 47-day hunger strike in 1992, when she protested U.S.
policy in Haiti.
   In 1967, she moved to East St. Louis, starting a cultural crusade. She
canvassed the streets, calling on everyone to share her love for the arts
and what she called "something more constructive than genocide."
   Dunham has been staying at the nearby riverboat Casino Queen's hotel
since her return to the area this week and may stay there or return briefly
to New York until her home is fully refurbished, said Dunham aide Charlotte
Ottley.