3-28-08
All that jazz: Gus Giordano, 84
August Thomas Giordano, universally known as Gus, an icon of American jazz dance, died March 9 of pneumonia. He was 84. A dancer, author, choreographer and trouper who devoted 60 years to the arts, he was founder and director emeritus of Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago. The school and company he founded in Evanston in 1953 now are run by his daughters, Nan and Amy Giordano.
Born in St. Louis in 1923, Giordano was a World War II Marine assigned to a performing group that put on shows at the Hollywood Canteen and at military bases around the country. After college in Missouri he moved to New York with his wife Peg and performed in the Broadway musicals Wish You Were Here, Paint Your Wagon, On the Town and on TV variety shows. In 1953, Giordano moved to Chicago and opened his dance school, where he taught and choreographed the Giordano technique. He wrote formally about his methods in “Anthology of American Jazz Dance” (1975), and organized the first Jazz Dance World Congress in 1990. Now an annual event, the Congress has been held at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and in Japan, Germany, Mexico and Costa Rica, among other locales.
In the early years of his dance company, when the Giordanos had a young family, Gus supplemented his income by teaching ballroom dancing on Friday and Saturday nights to snot-nosed early-adolescent suburban kids. This writer was one of those kids and remembers well the svelte figure in the tuxedo and white gloves, unflappable as the boys scattered “atom pearls”—small exploding pellets—on the floor of the Highland Park Women’s Club. Years later, as a young actor I had the privilege of working with Gus and his dancers (and the late Johnny Frigo and his orchestra) in several charity shows.
Giordano was the recipient of the 1984 Dance Educators of America Award, the 1988 Mayor’s Award for the Arts (Evanston, Ill.), the 1989 Governor’s Award for the Arts, the 1991 Dance Teacher Now Circle Award for lifetime contributions to dance education, the 1993 Ruth Page Lifetime Service to the Field Award and the 1996 University of Missouri Distinguished Alumni Award.
Giordano also received various honors from the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, Chukyo University (Japan) and the National Dance Association. In 1999, Gus received the Third Annual Katherine Dunham Award for “excellence and great contributions to the Arts,” and in 2005 he received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from Shenandoah University.
Gus is survived by daughters Nan Giordano and Amy Giordano, sons Patrick and Marc Giordano and eight grandchildren. Peg, Gus’ wife of many years, predeceased him. His dance troupe will present A Tribute to Gus Giordano at the Harris Theater next Oct. 24 and 25. Contributions can be sent to: Gus Giordano Memorial Fund, 614 Davis Street, Evanston, Illinois, 60201.