Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of Black Dance'' as many called her, was a revolutionary African American anthropologist and professional dancer. See "Selected Bibliography of Writings by Katherine Dunham" in Clark and Johnson. Through her ballet teachers, she was also exposed to Spanish, East Indian, Javanese, and Balinese dance forms.[23]. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." She had one of the most successful dance careers in Western dance theatre in the 20th century and directed her own dance company for many years. The schools she created helped train such notables as Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins in the "Dunham technique." Death . Long, Richard A, and Joe Nash. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. A short biography on the legendary Katherine Dunham.All information found at: kdcah.org Enjoy the short history lesson and visit dancingindarkskin.com for mo. It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. This is where, in the late 1960s, global dance legend Katherine Dunham put down roots and taught the arts of the African diaspora to local children and teenagers. April 30, 2019. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. 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. She majored in anthropology at the University of Chicago, and after learning that much of Black . In 1964, Dunham settled in East St. Louis, and took up the post of artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University in nearby Edwardsville. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham. Katherine Dunham and John Pratt married in 1949 to adopt Marie-Christine, a French 14-month-old baby. She also appeared in the Broadway musicals "Bal . Katherine Dunham was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, author, scholar, anthropologist and Civil Rights activist. 52 Copy quote. Died On : May 21, 2006. 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. [6] At the age of 15, she organized "The Blue Moon Caf", a fundraising cabaret to raise money for Brown's Methodist Church in Joliet, where she gave her first public performance. [15], In 1935, Dunham was awarded travel fellowships from the Julius Rosenwald and Guggenheim foundations to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, and Trinidad studying the dance forms of the Caribbean. The company returned to New York. 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. Chin, Elizabeth. The restructuring of heavy industry had caused the loss of many working-class jobs, and unemployment was high in the city. 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. Short Biography. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. Transforming Anthropology 20 (2012): 159168. Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. The committee voted unanimously to award $2,400 (more than $40,000 in today's money) to support her fieldwork in the Caribbean. She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US [1]. Two years later she formed an all-Black company, which began touring extensively by 1943. In 1967 she officially retired, after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1947 it was expanded and granted a charter as the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. theatrical designers john pratt. One of the most significant dancers, artists, and anthropologic figures of the 20th century, Katherine Dunham defied racial and gender boundaries during a . Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. 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. Somewhat later, she assisted him, at considerable risk to her life, when he was persecuted for his progressive policies and sent in exile to Jamaica after a coup d'tat. Dunham is credited with introducing international audiences to African aesthetics and establishing African dance as a true art form. In 1939, Dunham's company gave additional performances in Chicago and Cincinnati and then returned to New York. It closed after only 38 performances. Dunham was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, boycotting segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". About that time Dunham met and began to work with John Thomas Pratt, a Canadian who had become one of America's most renowned costume and theatrical set designers. Example. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. [52], On May 21, 2006, Dunham died in her sleep from natural causes in New York City. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. Having completed her undergraduate work at the University of Chicago and decided to pursue a performing career rather than academic studies, Dunham revived her dance ensemble. In 1963, Dunham became the first African-American to choreograph for the Metropolitan Opera. Katherine Dunham. This gained international headlines and the embarrassed local police officials quickly released her. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. 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. He needn't have bothered. 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]. 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. Kraft from the story by Jerry Horwin and Seymour B. Robinson, directed by Andrew L. Stone, produced by William LeBaron and starring Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Cab Calloway.The film is one of two Hollywood musicals with an African . 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. [54] After recovering crucial dance epistemologies relevant to people of the African diaspora during her ethnographic research, she applied anthropological knowledge toward developing her own dance pedagogy (Dunham Technique) that worked to reconcile with the legacy of colonization and racism and correct sociocultural injustices. USA. 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. Birth date: October 17, 1956. Dunham became interested in both writing and dance at a young age. At the age of 82, Dunham went on a hunger strike in . During her tenure, she secured funding for the Performing Arts Training Center, where she introduced a program designed to channel the energy of the communitys youth away from gangs and into dance. Her field work in the Caribbean began in Jamaica, where she lived for several months in the remote Maroon village of Accompong, deep in the mountains of Cockpit Country. [6][10] While still a high school student, she opened a private dance school for young black children. After the tour, in 1945, the Dunham company appeared in the short-lived Blue Holiday at the Belasco Theater in New York, and in the more successful Carib Song at the Adelphi Theatre. [50] Both Dunham and the prince denied the suggestion. Never completing her required coursework for her graduate degree, she departed for Broadway and Hollywood. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. Her technique was "a way of life". Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. "My job", she said, "is to create a useful legacy. Together, they produced the first version of her dance composition L'Ag'Ya, which premiered on January 27, 1938, as a part of the Federal Theater Project in Chicago. Keep reading for more such interesting quotes at Kidadl!) At the height of her career in the 1940s and 1950s, Dunham was renowned throughout Europe and Latin America and was widely popular in the United States. Educate, entertain, and engage with Factmonster. Not only did Dunham shed light on the cultural value of black dance, but she clearly contributed to changing perceptions of blacks in America by showing society that as a black woman, she could be an intelligent scholar, a beautiful dancer, and a skilled choreographer. The next year the production was repeated with Katherine Dunham in the lead and with students from Dunham's Negro Dance Group in the ensemble. The Katherine Dunham Museum is located at 1005 Pennsylvania Avenue, East St. Louis, Illinois. Kraut, Anthea. Dunham also studied ballet with Mark Turbyfill and Ruth Page, who became prima ballerina of the Chicago Opera. After the national tour of Cabin in the Sky, the Dunham company stayed in Los Angeles, where they appeared in the Warner Brothers short film Carnival of Rhythm (1941). Birth Year: 1956. Dunham was born in Chicago on June 22, 1909. [16], After her research tour of the Caribbean in 1935, Dunham returned to Chicago in the late spring of 1936. : Writings by and About Katherine Dunham. informed by new methods of america's most highly regarded. Birth State: Alabama. Katherine Dunham was an American dancer and choreographer, credited to have brought the influence of Africa and the Caribbean into American dance . 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. 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. Katherine Dunham. American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. Her alumni included many future celebrities, such as Eartha Kitt. Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist During World War II. [ ] Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909 (age 96) in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. [54] Her legacy within Anthropology and Dance Anthropology continues to shine with each new day. 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. Also Known For : . Born: June 22, 1909. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. In 1945, Dunham opened and directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. 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). 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. "Hoy programa extraordinario y el sbado dos estamos nos ofrece Katherine Dunham,", Constance Valis Hill, "Katherine Dunham's, Anna Kisselgoff, "Katherine Dunham's Legacy, Visible in Youth and Age,". Katherine Dunham introduced African and Caribbean rhythms to modern dance. "In introducing authentic African dance-movements to her company and audiences, Dunhamperhaps more than any other choreographer of the timeexploded the possibilities of modern dance expression.". Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisaw Malinowski, A.R. until hia death in the 1986. Throughout her career, Dunham occasionally published articles about her anthropological research (sometimes under the pseudonym of Kaye Dunn) and sometimes lectured on anthropological topics at universities and scholarly societies.[27]. By 1957, Dunham was under severe personal strain, which was affecting her health. She made national headlines by staging a hunger strike to protest the U.S. governments repatriation policy for Haitian immigrants. When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. By the time she received an M.A. 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. Q. Katherine Mary Dun ham was an African-American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. Jobson, Ryan Cecil. 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. After the 1968 riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Dunham encouraged gang members in the ghetto to come to the center to use drumming and dance to vent their frustrations. [35] In a different interview, Dunham describes her technique "as a way of life,[36]" a sentiment that seems to be shared by many of her admiring students. She made world tours as a dancer, choreographer, and director of her own dance company. [7] The family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood in Joliet, Illinois. 1. This concert, billed as Tropics and Le Hot Jazz, included not only her favorite partners Archie Savage and Talley Beatty, but her principal Haitian drummer, Papa Augustin. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Katherine Johnson graduated from college at age 18. Stormy Weather is a 1943 American musical film produced and released by 20th Century Fox, adapted by Frederick J. Jackson, Ted Koehler and H.S. Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. Her father was a descendant of slaves from West Africa, and her mother was a mix of French-Canadian and Native-American heritage. 47 Copy quote. "[48] During her protest, Dick Gregory led a non-stop vigil at her home, where many disparate personalities came to show their respect, such Debbie Allen, Jonathan Demme, and Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam. Encouraged by Speranzeva to focus on modern dance instead of ballet, Dunham opened her first dance school in 1933, calling it the Negro Dance Group. 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. [12] There she was able to bring anthropologists, sociologists, educational specialists, scientists, writers, musicians, and theater people together to create a liberal arts curriculum that would be a foundation for further college work. In 1992, at age 83, Dunham went on a highly publicized hunger strike to protest the discriminatory U.S. foreign policy against Haitian boat-people. 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. The Katherine Dunham Company toured throughout North America in the mid-1940s, performing as well in the racially segregated South. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. Among Dunham's closest friends and colleagues was Julie Robinson, formerly a performer with the Katherine Dunham Company, and her husband, singer and later political activist Harry Belafonte. She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. In Boston, then a bastion of conservatism, the show was banned in 1944 after only one performance. In addition, Dunham conducted special projects for African American high school students in Chicago; was artistic and technical director (196667) to the president of Senegal; and served as artist-in-residence, and later professor, at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and director of Southern Illinoiss Performing Arts Training Centre and Dynamic Museum in East St. Louis, Illinois. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. Dunham created many all-black dance groups. Best Known For: Mae C. Jemison is the . [13] University of Chicago's anthropology department was fairly new and the students were still encouraged to learn aspects of sociology, distinguishing it from other anthropology departments in the US that focused almost exclusively on non-Western peoples. ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . Additionally, she was named one of the most influential African American anthropologists. Among her dancers selected were Marcia McBroom, Dana McBroom, Jean Kelly, and Jesse Oliver. In this post, she choreographed the Chicago production of Run Li'l Chil'lun, performed at the Goodman Theater. Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Lloyd Warner and Bronisaw Malinowski. In 1950, Sol Hurok presented Katherine Dunham and Her Company in a dance revue at the Broadway Theater in New York, with a program composed of some of Dunham's best works. Question 2. At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. The impresario Sol Hurok, manager of Dunham's troupe for a time, once had Ms. Dunham's legs insured for $250,000. All You Need to Know About Dunham Technique. At the time, the South Side of Chicago was experiencing the effects of the Great Migration were Black southerners attempted to escape the Jim Crow South and poverty. It was a huge collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, so it naturally covered a lot of area. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance." She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company. As I document in my book Katherine Dunham: Dance and the . In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. She did this for many reasons. She returned to the United States in 1936 informed by new methods of movement and expression, which she incorporated into techniques that transformed the world of dance. [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. Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. Grow your vocab the fun way! She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. In Hollywood, Dunham refused to sign a lucrative studio contract when the producer said she would have to replace some of her darker-skinned company members. Dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1910, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small suburb of . Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200003840/. Pas de Deux from "L'Ag'Ya". During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. [15] Dunham's relationship with Redfield in particular was highly influential. Actress: Star Spangled Rhythm. New York City, U.S. 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. Occupation(s): (She later wrote Journey to Accompong, a book describing her experiences there.) Katherine Johnson, ne Katherine Coleman, also known as (1939-56) Katherine Goble, (born August 26, 1918, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, U.S.died February 24, 2020, Newport News, Virginia), American mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecraft during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program. On February 22, 2022, Selkirk will offer a unique, one-lot auction titled, Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Ephemera And Documents. The Dunham Technique Ballet African Dancing Her favorite color was platinum Caribbean Dancing Her favorite food was Filet of Sole How she started out Ballet African Dance Caribbean Dance The Dunham Technique wasn't so much as a technique so 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. [10], After completing her studies at Joliet Junior College in 1928, Dunham moved to Chicago to join her brother Albert at the University of Chicago. Katherine Dunham got an early bachelor's degree in anthropology as a student at the University of Chicago. She . After he became her artistic collaborator, they became romantically involved. He continued as her artistic collaborator until his death in 1986. Despite 13 knee surgeries, Ms. Dunham danced professionally for more than . 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 . Numerous scholars describe Dunham as pivotal to the fields of Dance Education, Applied Anthropology, Humanistic Anthropology, African Diasporic Anthropology and Liberatory Anthropology. During her studies, Dunham attended a lecture on anthropology, where she was introduced to the concept of dance as a cultural symbol. [21] This style of participant observation research was not yet common within the discipline of anthropology. After running it as a tourist spot, with Vodun dancing as entertainment, in the early 1960s, she sold it to a French entrepreneur in the early 1970s. In 1949, Dunham returned from international touring with her company for a brief stay in the United States, where she suffered a temporary nervous breakdown after the premature death of her beloved brother Albert. 2 (2020): 259271. Katherine Dunham, the dancer, choreographer, teacher and anthropologist whose pioneering work introduced much of the black heritage in dance to the stage, died Sunday at her home in Manhattan.
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