BY DAWN BAUMGARTNER VAUGHAN

dvaughan@heraldsun.com; 419-6563

DURHAM -- Fifteen back flips, triple air somersault, a tap routine, hip-hop and more dance moves all followed by a big grin. That's how Chuck Davis described his reaction to the $100,000 GlaxoSmithKline Charles "Chuck" Davis Endowment at the St. Joseph's Historic Foundation at the Hayti Heritage Center.

Davis is the founder and artistic director of the African American Dance Ensemble. The endowment named for the Durham icon will support Hayti dance programs, outreach, residencies, lectures, demonstrations, classes and collaborations with the AADE.

"I appreciate the honor and the fact that it is a place, a space and a program for youth to not necessarily become a dancer, but to discover life," Davis said. Too many young people are on a conveyor belt of education, he said, with monotonous learning stamped on their foreheads.

The endowment will be able to engender an excitement for life, Davis said.

"Hayti is the perfect venue because there are people there who care," he said.

V. Dianne Pledger, president of St. Joseph's, said they were very excited that GlaxoSmithKline was interested and saw the need to continue the rich heritage of dance in Durham.

"We love Chuck Davis. What better place?" Pledger said. "He is a treasure to Durham and known throughout the globe. He is a person rich in culture but humble." She also commended Davis for his role in the community and emphasis on education and working with young people.

"We are just blessed to have him and the African American Dance Ensemble in our community," Pledger said.

AADE will open the American Dance Festival on June 10 in Durham. Davis said he has many ideas for what the AADE and the endowment can do, and hopes Hayti will sponsor a Dance Africa Festival in Durham in 2011.

The endowment, which the foundation hopes to match, will be distributed over four years and allow Hayti to continue and expand its dance residencies, programs and outreach. Later this year, the dance studio at Hayti Heritage Center will be named for Davis.

Previous gifts of this size to the St. Joseph's Historical Foundation include a $500,000 Doris Duke grant to renovate the performance space and $150,000 from GSK in 1993 to support programs. To contribute to the GlaxoSmithKline Charles "Chuck" Davis Endowment, send contributions to St. Joseph's Historical Foundation, 804 Old Fayetteville St., Durham NC 27701. In 2008, GSK supported U.S. organizations with $16.2 in grants.