City honors late dancer Dunham

With the rhythmic beat of large drums and flowing dance routines, the city of East St. Louis, Ill., that Katherine Dunham adopted and called home for three decades paid tribute Thursday to the late dancer and choreographer on what would have been her 97th birthday.

A month after Dunham’s death, admirers of the woman best known for melding movements from traditional African and Caribbean dance gathered in the gym of an elementary school once attended by jazz legend Miles Davis and track great Jackie Joyner-Kersee.