Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) was a world-renowned choreographer who broke many barriers of race and gender, most notably as an African American woman whose dance company toured the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia for several decades. Then she traveled to Martinique and to Trinidad and Tobago for short stays, primarily to do an investigation of Shango, the African god who was still considered an important presence in West Indian religious culture. Dunhams writings, sometimes published under the pseudonym Kaye Dunn, include Katherine Dunhams Journey to Accompong (1946), an account of her anthropological studies in Jamaica; A Touch of Innocence (1959), an autobiography; Island Possessed (1969); and several articles for popular and scholarly journals. Dunham is still taught at widely recognized dance institutions such as The American Dance Festival and The Ailey School. Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. In August she was awarded a bachelor's degree, a Ph.B., bachelor of philosophy, with her principal area of study being social anthropology. Radcliffe-Brown, Fred Eggan, and many others that she met in and around the University of Chicago. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . 8 Katherine Dunham facts. Later that year she took her troupe to Mexico, where their performances were so popular that they stayed and performed for more than two months. [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. [34], According to Dunham, the development of her technique came out of a need for specialized dancers to support her choreographic visions and a greater yearning for technique that "said the things that [she] wanted to say. Katherine Dunham Biography for Kids - lottie.com As Wendy Perron wrote, "Jazz dance, 'fusion,' and the search for our cultural identity all have their antecedents in Dunham's work as a dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. In 1967, Dunham opened the Performing Arts Training Center (PATC) in East St. Louis in an effort to use the arts to combat poverty and urban unrest. The troupe performed a suite of West Indian dances in the first half of the program and a ballet entitled Tropic Death, with Talley Beatty, in the second half. ..American Anthropologist.. 112, no. Katherine Dunham Timeline | Articles and Essays | Selections from the They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. A carriage house on the grounds is to . In 1950, while visiting Brazil, Dunham and her group were refused rooms at a first-class hotel in So Paulo, the Hotel Esplanada, frequented by many American businessmen. She did this for many reasons. I Took A Katherine Dunham-Technique Dance Class And Learned - Essence The Katherine Dunham Museum: Saving the Legacy of a True Renaissance Woman Video footage of Dunham technique classes show a strong emphasis on anatomical alignment, breath, and fluidity. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th . Barrelhouse. Born in Glen Ellyn, IL #6. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. Many of Dunham students who attended free public classes in East St. Louis Illinois speak highly about the influence of her open technique classes and artistic presence in the city. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 May 21, 2006)[1] was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. [13] The Anthropology department at Chicago in the 1930s and 40s has been described as holistic, interdisciplinary, with a philosophy of liberal humanism, and principles of racial equality and cultural relativity. Please scroll down to enjoy more supporting materials. Her mother, Fanny June Dunham, who, according to Dunham's memoir, possessed Indian, French Canadian, English and probably African ancestry, died when Dunham was four years old. One of the most important dance artists of the twentieth century, dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) created works that thrilled audiences the world over. Although Dunham was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance. She majored in anthropology at the University of Chicago, and after learning that much of Black . Dunham and Kitt collaborated again in the 1970s in an Equity Production of the musical Peg, based on the Irish play, Peg O' My Heart. Dunham used Habitation Leclerc as a private retreat for many years, frequently bringing members of her dance company to recuperate from the stress of touring and to work on developing new dance productions. Over the years Katherine Dunham has received scores of special awards, including more than a dozen honorary doctorates from various American universities. - Pic Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Katherine Dunham: legendary dancer who founded the 1st American black Ruth Page had written a scenario and choreographed La Guiablesse ("The Devil Woman"), based on a Martinican folk tale in Lafcadio Hearn's Two Years in the French West Indies. As Julia Foulkes pointed out, "Dunham's path to success lay in making high art in the United States from African and Caribbean sources, capitalizing on a heritage of dance within the African Diaspora, and raising perceptions of African American capabilities."[65]. 2 (2020): 259271. Dunham, Katherine Mary (1909-2006) - Routledge ((Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum Photograph and Prints collection. Katherine Mary Dunham was born in Chicago in 1909. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. Her father was a descendant of slaves from West Africa, and her mother was a mix of French-Canadian and Native-American heritage. Birthday : June 22, 1909. As an African American woman, she broke barriers of race and gender, most notably as the founder of an important dance company that toured the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Australia for several decades. Katherine Dunham Helped Teach the World to Dance : NPR In 1921, a short story she wrote when she was 12 years old, called "Come Back to Arizona", was published in volume 2 of The Brownies' Book. The first work, entitled A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood, was published in 1959. However, after her father remarried, Albert Sr. and his new wife, Annette Poindexter Dunham, took in Katherine and her brother. A dance choreographer. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small . Leverne Backstrom, president of the board of the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, still does. Kraut, Anthea. In this post, she choreographed the Chicago production of Run Li'l Chil'lun, performed at the Goodman Theater. [3] She created many all-black dance groups. Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. Born in 1909 during the turn of the century Victorian era in the small town of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, she became one of the first dance anthropologists, started the first internationally-touring pre-dominantly black dance company . While Dunham was recognized as "unofficially" representing American cultural life in her foreign tours, she was given very little assistance of any kind by the U.S. State Department. He was only one of a number of international celebrities who were Dunham's friends. While a student at the University of Chicago, she formed a dance group that performed in concert at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1934 and with the Chicago Civic Opera company in 193536. Katherine Dunham facts for kids. Another fact is that it was the sometime home of the pioneering black American dancer Katherine Dunham. Regarding her impact and effect he wrote: "The rise of American Negro dance commenced when Katherine Dunham and her company skyrocketed into the Windsor Theater in New York, from Chicago in 1940, and made an indelible stamp on the dance world Miss Dunham opened the doors that made possible the rapid upswing of this dance for the present generation." See "Selected Bibliography of Writings by Katherine Dunham" in Clark and Johnson. As one of her biographers, Joyce Aschenbrenner, wrote: "Today, it is safe to say, there is no American black dancer who has not been influenced by the Dunham Technique, unless he or she works entirely within a classical genre",[2] and the Dunham Technique is still taught to anyone who studies modern dance. Using some ballet vernacular, Dunham incorporates these principles into a set of class exercises she labeled as "processions". [3] Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance." ", Richard Buckle, ballet historian and critic, wrote: "Her company of magnificent dancers and musicians met with the success it has and that herself as explorer, thinker, inventor, organizer, and dancer should have reached a place in the estimation of the world, has done more than a million pamphlets could for the service of her people. Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. In the summer of 1941, after the national tour of Cabin in the Sky ended, they went to Mexico, where inter-racial marriages were less controversial than in the United States, and engaged in a commitment ceremony on 20 July, which thereafter they gave as the date of their wedding. [2] Most of Dunham's works previewed many questions essential to anthropology's postmodern turn, such as critiquing understandings of modernity, interpretation, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. During her studies, Dunham attended a lecture on anthropology, where she was introduced to the concept of dance as a cultural symbol. [15] Dunham's relationship with Redfield in particular was highly influential. Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist | Center for the Humanities Text:. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York. She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US [1]. Grow your vocab the fun way! Katherine Dunham Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. theatrical designers john pratt. While trying to help the young people in the community, Dunham was arrested. [15] He showed her the connection between dance and social life giving her the momentum to explore a new area of anthropology, which she later termed "Dance Anthropology". Never completing her required coursework for her graduate degree, she departed for Broadway and Hollywood. [51] The couple had officially adopted their foster daughter, a 14-month-old girl they had found as an infant in a Roman Catholic convent nursery in Fresnes, France. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Birth State: Alabama. Although it was well received by the audience, local censors feared that the revealing costumes and provocative dances might compromise public morals. "[35] Dunham explains that while she admired the narrative quality of ballet technique, she wanted to develop a movement vocabulary that captured the essence of the Afro-Caribbean dancers she worked with during her travels. ", Scholar of the arts Harold Cruse wrote in 1964: "Her early and lifelong search for meaning and artistic values for black people, as well as for all peoples, has motivated, created opportunities for, and launched careers for generations of young black artists Afro-American dance was usually in the avant-garde of modern dance Dunham's entire career spans the period of the emergence of Afro-American dance as a serious art. When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. Dunham is a ventriloquist comedian and uses seven different puppets in his act, known by his fans as the "suitcase posse." His first Comedy Central Presents special premiered in 2003. American Anthropologist 122, no. Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. Birth Country: United States. Her technique was "a way of life". She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. 1. [49] In fact, that ceremony was not recognized as a legal marriage in the United States, a point of law that would come to trouble them some years later. Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. The company was located on the property that formerly belonged to the Isadora Duncan Dance in Caravan Hill but subsequently moved to W 43rd Street. Dunham saved the day by arranging for the company to be paid to appear in a German television special, Karibische Rhythmen, after which they returned to the United States. Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. April 30, 2019. Inspiring dancers: Ms Katherine Dunham - (Un)popular Cultures Featuring lively Latin American and Caribbean dances, plantation dances, and American social dances, the show was an immediate success. This was the beginning of more than 20 years during which Dunham performed with her company almost exclusively outside the United States. All You Need to Know About Dunham Technique - Dance Spirit Dunham and her company appeared in the Hollywood movie Casbah (1948) with Tony Martin, Yvonne De Carlo, and Peter Lorre, and in the Italian film Botta e Risposta, produced by Dino de Laurentiis. Later in the year she opened a cabaret show in Las Vegas, during the first year that the city became a popular entertainment as well as gambling destination. For several years, Dunham's personal assistant and press promoter was Maya Deren, who later also became interested in Vodun and wrote The Divine Horseman: The Voodoo Gods of Haiti (1953). Omissions? [13] Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance. Katherine was also an activist, author, educator, and anthropologist. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! The original two-week engagement was extended by popular demand into a three-month run, after which the company embarked on an extensive tour of the United States and Canada. (She later wrote Journey to Accompong, a book describing her experiences there.) This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Katherine-Dunham, The Kennedy Center - Biography of Katherine Dunham, Katherine Dunham - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Dunham technique is a codified dance training technique developed by Katherine Dunham in the mid 20th century. Banks, Ojeya Cruz. [54] This wave continued throughout the 1990s with scholars publishing works (such as Decolonizing Anthropology: Moving Further in Anthropology for Liberation,[55] Decolonizing Methodologies,[56] and more recently, The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn[57]) that critique anthropology and the discipline's roles in colonial knowledge production and power structures. [12] Dunham created many all-black dance groups. The committee voted unanimously to award $2,400 (more than $40,000 in today's money) to support her fieldwork in the Caribbean. movement and expression. Her father was given a number of important positions at court . katherine dunham fun factsaiken county sc register of deeds katherine dunham fun facts Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) By Halifu Osumare Katherine Dunham was a world famous dancer, choreographer, author, anthropologist, social activist, and humanitarian. Alvin Ailey, who stated that he first became interested in dance as a professional career after having seen a performance of the Katherine Dunham Company as a young teenager of 14 in Los Angeles, called the Dunham Technique "the closest thing to a unified Afro-American dance existing.". Updates? Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Beautiful, Justice, Black. [4] In 1938, using materials collected ethnographic fieldwork, Dunham submitted a thesis, The Dances of Haiti: A Study of Their Material Aspect, Organization, Form, and Function,. 2 (2012): 159168. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of Black Dance'' as many called her, was a revolutionary African American anthropologist and professional dancer. Dunham herself was quietly involved in both the Voodoo and Orisa communities of the Caribbean and the United States, in particular with the Lucumi tradition. [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. Katherine Dunham, 1909-2006 - WWP ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . There is also a strong emphasis on training dancers in the practices of engaging with polyrhythms by simultaneously moving their upper and lower bodies according to different rhythmic patterns. USA. Katherine returnedto to the usa in 1931 miss Dunham met one of. In 1948, she opened A Caribbean Rhapsody, first at the Prince of Wales Theatre in London, and then took it to the Thtre des Champs-lyses in Paris. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. Black Joy, Black Power: Dancing the Legacy of Katherine Dunham Episode 5 of Break the FACTS! On February 22, 2022, Selkirk will offer a unique, one-lot auction titled, Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Ephemera And Documents. [13], Dunham officially joined the department in 1929 as an anthropology major,[13] while studying dances of the African diaspora. By drawing on a vast, never-utilized trove of archival materials along with oral histories, choreographic analysis, and embodied research, Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora offers new insight about how this remarkable woman built political solidarity through the arts. It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. In response, the Afonso Arinos law was passed in 1951 that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil.[42][43][44][45][46][47]. June 22 Dancer #4. In the mid-1930s she conducted anthropological research on dance and incorporated her findings into her choreography, blending the rhythms and movements of . Dunham also studied ballet with Mark Turbyfill and Ruth Page, who became prima ballerina of the Chicago Opera. Katherine Dunham, June 22, Katherine Dunham was born to a French -Canadian woman and an African American man in the state of Chicago in America, Her birthday was 22nd June in the year 1909. . In 1939, Dunham's company gave additional performances in Chicago and Cincinnati and then returned to New York. Admission is $10, or $5 for students and seniors, and hours are by appointment; call 618-875-3636, or 618-618-795-5970 three to five days in advance. [16], After her research tour of the Caribbean in 1935, Dunham returned to Chicago in the late spring of 1936. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. Katherine Dunham, was mounted at the Women's Center on the campus. Her world-renowned modern dance company exposed audiences to the diversity of dance, and her schools brought dance training and education to a variety of populations sharing her passion and commitment to dance as a medium of cultural communication. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) is revered as one of the great pillars of American dance history. Charm Dance from "L'Ag'Ya". Born: June 22, 1909. Died On : May 21, 2006. She and her company frequently had difficulties finding adequate accommodations while on tour because in many regions of the country, black Americans were not allowed to stay at hotels. In 1963, she became the first African American to choreograph for the Met since Hemsley Winfield set the dances for The Emperor Jones in 1933. Katherine Dunham - Author, Career, Childhood - Katherine Dunham Biography She established the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities in East St. Louis to preserve Haitian and African instruments and artifacts from her personal collection. Commonly grouped into the realm of modern dance techniques, Dunham is a technical dance form developed from elements of indigenous African and Afro-Caribbean dances. In 1946, Dunham returned to Broadway for a revue entitled Bal Ngre, which received glowing notices from theater and dance critics. Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisaw Malinowski, A.R. Katherine Dunham's Biography - The HistoryMakers A highlight of Dunham's later career was the invitation from New York's Metropolitan Opera to stage dances for a new production of Aida, starring soprano Leontyne Price. . "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy." She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. (She later took a Ph.D. in anthropology.)