August 12, 2005

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A farewell dance

by Terry Tang

It's been two years since the ill-fated Fathers' Day when Auguste Leonard Malonga, known as "Casquelourd," died suddenly. Now, the time has come for his grown children and friends to say a final good-bye with a "Malaki Matanga," a Congolese celebration marking the official end of a mourning period.

This ceremonial tradition will be in a very public forum. The African dancer's family says he would have liked knowing his relatives and the dance ensemble he started were moving on with help from a performance vehicle.

"He created this extended family out here. As we release, we give other people the opportunity to do the same thing," said his eldest daughter, Muisi-kongo Malonga. "The whole mourning process was very public in the beginning. It's only natural: as it comes to a close, it goes public again."

Fua Dia Congo, the Oakland dance company Casquelourd founded in East Palo Alto, will be joined by other musicians and dance troupes from various parts of the globe at Stanford's Memorial Auditorium this Saturday for Malaki Matanga 2005: Wa Dia Fua Yika Dio. Translated, the latter half of the title states "When one inherits something of value, one must add value to it."

Before his death, Casquelourd had been composing routines based on this theme. Now the proverb rings with deeper emotional resonance as his four grown children carry on their father's unfinished work.

On an early Sunday morning in 2003, Casquelourd was driving home through downtown Oakland from a niece's high school graduation party on an early Sunday morning, having banged the drums at Stanford University's Black Graduation several hours earlier. He collided head-on with a drunken driver heading the wrong direction on a one-way street. The 55-year-old dancer, who his family said loved to discuss politics and crack a joke, died shortly after impact.

The driver was sentenced to four years in prison for vehicular manslaughter. Casquelourd's family has since made peace with what some may view as a light sentence.

"What's done is done," said son Kiazi Malonga. "Even if he got 50 years or 150 years, my life wouldn't really change as a result of that."

After the passing of Casquelourd, a Congolese native, all his children followed the Congolese way of grieving, wearing dark colored clothes and shaving their heads. Fua Dia Congo members planned performances with music and dance that reflected their collective sadness.

At the Malaki Matanga, audiences will get a front-row seat as the family begins a return to normalcy. First, family members will receive a symbolic "cleansing" of darkness and sadness by a healer, who will ask their ancestors to grant them permission to move on. From there, the family will segue into actual dancing.

Besides honoring their heritage, both Malonga siblings expect to find personal solace in the entire ritual.

"He left us with this gift which is a huge responsibility too," Kiazi said. "To add on to it, to say, 'Dad, this is how we're going to take it a couple steps further,' it's more therapeutic than any (prison) sentence because it's a direct connection to him."

The dancing promises to relate stories about Congolese history while paying tribute by using routines choreographed or inspired by Casquelourd, whom his daughter described as a "fiery performer" with constant energy. Congolese dance, which can go from mellow to frenetic very quickly, usually consists of isolated movements of the torso, hips and shoulders. The dance style often requires dancers to gyrate low to the ground. Muisi said people sometimes mistakenly assume that African dance is a series of "free-for-all" movements with no meaning.

"People don't see African dance as something that has form or something that has an intellectual aspect to it," she said. "It's not just movement. You're down low, different body parts are moving. You may be doing a dance that teaches girls how to make a dish, or celebrates harvest, or performing a healing dance."

Some of the musicians and dance groups who will pay homage to Casquelourd have come from as far as Ghana and Paris. They also run the gamut of musical genres, from hip hop, Brazilian dancing and Afro Latin to jazz. The program will also showcase several ethnic instruments: the kalimba, a gourd piano played with only the thumb; a sakala, a string connecting two seeds that vibrates and is worn on the wrist; and n'gogia bells made of metal.

From an early age, music and dance went hand in hand for Casquelourd. A principal member of the National Congolese Dance Company, he became a global face for numerous types of dance. In 1972, he arrived in New York where he co-founded a central African dance company and taught at various schools. Although Malonga was his family name, he adapted the moniker of Casquelourd, a nickname he'd had since youth.

The name means "heavy helmet," and it stuck when Casquelourd was a young freedom fighter working for independence for the Congo, his daughter said.

Four years later, he met up with a friend who was an engineering student at Stanford University. Smitten with East Palo Alto, Casquelourd raised his family there while working to bring Congolese dance and drums to the community.

His children have fond memories of growing up in a home that was constantly hosting his dance and musician friends from other countries. Some would stay for months or longer, until they felt acclimated. In retrospect, Muisi said, knowing how to dance and drum-beat gave her a secure sense of identity.

"As a child, when you're trying to figure out who you are, to have something that you're good at, to acquire knowledge or skill, really helps make you the person you're going to be," Muisi said.

Casquelourd's passing still leaves ripples for those in charge of his company, they said. He did everything -- running the business end, reaching out to guest artists, spearheading the company's move to Oakland in the mid-1980s -- and every major decision was made by him. Manager Janeen Johnson, who was his assistant, still marvels at how he deftly juggled everything.

"I just couldn't understand how someone could have so many responsibilities and commitments and recognize what one needed collectively and individually and give it to them," Johnson said.

He also made time to teach. Patient but with optimistic expectations for even the most left-footed students, he had a knack for helping a student find a personal connection with a new dance step, Muisi said.

"His main thing was relating to the individual student, making the light bulb go on," she said.

Though he's no longer here, Casquelourd's influence is quite visible, especially around the Bay Area. In Oakland, the Alice Arts Center was renamed for him last year. His all-ages dance company operates Congolese drum and dance summer camps and classes in Oakland and at Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto, drawing thousands of students every year, his family said.

In the fall, Kiazi, who graduated from Stanford last year, will lead a public speaking class and co-teach a dance-and-percussion class with Muisi.

"Though he's not here -- and the way it happened was devastating -- we're able to carry the load for him. We're his representatives on Earth," Muisi said. "So, this 'Matanga,' it kind of helps us get through because it helps us know he's still here. We're ending this mourning because he's still here and the arts and gifts he left us are still here."


What: "Malaki Matanga 2005," a celebration of Casquelourd led by the Fua Dia Congo dance ensemble.


Where: Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University.


When: Saturday, Aug. 13, 7:30 p.m.


Cost: Ticket prices are $20 general and $10 for ages 12 and under.


Info: For tickets and more information, call 510-562-0831 or go to congorhythms.org.

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