Office of the Mayor

Proclamation

Lawrence, Kansas

WHEREAS: Elizabeth Sherbon was born on January 8, 1908, and moved to Lawrence in 1917, where she graduated from Lawrence High School in 1926 and the University of Kansas in 1930. She returned to Lawrence in 1961 and remained until her death in 2000; and

WHEREAS: Elizabeth Sherbon was a former member of the Martha Graham and Jean Erdman dance companies in New York City where she was Martha Graham’s teaching assistant; and

WHEREAS: Elizabeth Sherbon co-founded the American Dance Symposia in Wichita with her twin sister, Alice Bauman, which drew performers, choreographers, scholars and students from around the world from 1968-1972 and was called “the most innovative and important summer dance program to surface since Bennington” by the National Endowment for the Arts; and

WHEREAS: Elizabeth Sherbon created the first dance major at the University of Kansas while she taught there from 1961 to 1975; and

WHEREAS: The City of Lawrence awarded Elizabeth Sherbon the Cultural Enhancement Award in 1993 for her contributions to the city’s artistic and cultural life;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Michael Dever, Mayor of the City of Lawrence, Kansas, do hereby proclaim April 14 – April 20 as

“Elizabeth Sherbon Week”

in Lawrence.

Michael Dever, Mayor

April 15, 2008