[4], Katherine Mary Dunham was born on 22 June 1909 in a Chicago hospital. Katherine Dunham in 1956. Dunham refused to hold a show in one theater after finding out that the city's black residents had not been allowed to buy tickets for the performance. 1. 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. 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." In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. The following year, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Dunham to be technical cultural advisera sort of cultural ambassadorto the government of Senegal in West Africa. With choreography characterized by exotic sexuality, both became signature works in the Dunham repertory. and creative team that lasted. Katherine Dunham was born on the 22nd of June, 1909 in Chicago before she was taken by her parents to their hometown at Glen Ellyn in Illinois. [54] Her legacy within Anthropology and Dance Anthropology continues to shine with each new day. Although it was well received by the audience, local censors feared that the revealing costumes and provocative dances might compromise public morals. "Kaiso! In the 1930s, she did fieldwork in the Caribbean and infused her choreography with the cultures . 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. Her mother passed away when Katherine was only 3 years old. 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. Her dance career was interrupted in 1935 when she received funding from the Rosenwald Foundation which allowed her to travel to Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, and Haiti for eighteen months to explore each country's respective dance cultures. 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. [15] It was in a lecture by Redfield that she learned about the relationship between dance and culture, pointing out that Black Americans had retained much of their African heritage in dances. 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. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, First Pan-African World Festival of Negro Arts, National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame, "Katherine Dunham | African American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist", "Timeline: The Katherine Dunham Collection at the Library of Congress (Performing Arts Encyclopedia, The Library of Congress)", "Special Presentation: Katherine Dunham Timeline". Dana McBroom-Manno still teaches Dunham Technique in New York City and is a Master of Dunham Technique. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. The Katherine Dunham Fund buys and adapts for use as a museum an English Regency-style townhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue at Tenth Street in East Saint Louis. She describes this during an interview in 2002: "My problemmy strong drive at that time was to remain in this academic position that anthropology gave me, and at the same time continue with this strong drive for motionrhythmic motion". Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. 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. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology. Fun Facts. Katherine Dunham was a rebel among rebels. [22] After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. 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. 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. Her work inspired many. [36] Her classes are described as a safe haven for many and some of her students even attribute their success in life to the structure and artistry of her technical institution. Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . Here are some interesting facts about Alvin Ailey for you: Facts about Alvin Ailey 1: the popular modern dance There she met John Pratt, an artist and designer and they got married in 1941 until his death in 1986. The schools she created helped train such notables as Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins in the "Dunham technique." Death . [6][10] While still a high school student, she opened a private dance school for young black children. Gender: Female. After he became her artistic collaborator, they became romantically involved. Facts about Alvin Ailey talk about the famous African-American activist and choreographer. Katherine Dunham. But what set her work even further apart from Martha Graham and Jos Limn was her fusion of that foundation with Afro-Caribbean styles. Katherine Dunham got an early bachelor's degree in anthropology as a student at the University of Chicago. Dancer, choreographer, composer and songwriter, educated at the University of Chicago. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). VV A. Clark and Sara E. Johnson, editors, Joliet Central High School Yearbook, 1928. In 19341936, Dunham performed as a guest artist with the ballet company of the Chicago Opera. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . Othella Dallas, 93, still teaches Katherine Dunham technique, which she learned from Dunham herself. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. [21] This style of participant observation research was not yet common within the discipline of anthropology. [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. Long, Richard A, and Joe Nash. Her many original works include Lagya, Shango and Bal Negre. Her dance company was provided with rent-free studio space for three years by an admirer and patron, Lee Shubert; it had an initial enrollment of 350 students. Dunham's last appearance on Broadway was in 1962 in Bamboche!, which included a few former Dunham dancers in the cast and a contingent of dancers and drummers from the Royal Troupe of Morocco. 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. THE DIGITAL REPOSITORY FOR THE BLACK EXPERIENCE. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. 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. However, one key reason was that she knew she would be able to reach a broader public through dance, as opposed to the inaccessible institutions of academia. The living Dunham tradition has persisted. movement and expression. ", "Kaiso! June 22 Dancer #4. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. (Below are 10 Katherine Dunham quotes on positivity. USA. Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. Dunham became interested in both writing and dance at a young age. Book. Katherine Dunham, a world-renowned dancer and choreographer, had big plans for East St. Louis in 1977. 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. for teaching dance that is still la'ag'ya , Shange , Veraruzana, nanigo. She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US [1]. She was a pioneer of Dance Anthropology, established methodologies of ethnochoreology, and her work gives essential historical context to current conversations and practices of decolonization within and outside of the discipline of anthropology. 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. Katherine Dunham is the inventor of the Dunham technique and a renowned dancer and choreographer of African-American descent. [7] The family moved to a predominantly white neighborhood in Joliet, Illinois. One of her fellow professors, with whom she collaborated, was architect Buckminster Fuller. : Writings by and About Katherine Dunham. Dunham Company member Dana McBroom-Manno was selected as a featured artist in the show, which played on the Music Fair Circuit. 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.". [20] She also became friends with, among others, Dumarsais Estim, then a high-level politician, who became president of Haiti in 1949. Katherine Dunham Quotes On Positivity. Numerous scholars describe Dunham as pivotal to the fields of Dance Education, Applied Anthropology, Humanistic Anthropology, African Diasporic Anthropology and Liberatory Anthropology. Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. In 1937 she traveled with them to New York to take part in A Negro Dance Evening, organized by Edna Guy at the 92nd Street YMHA. until hia death in the 1986. Katherine Dunham's long and remarkable life spanned the fields of anthropology, dance, theater, and inner city social work.As an anthropologist, Dunham studied and lived among the peoples of Haiti and other Caribbean islands; as a dancer and choreographer she combined "primitive" Caribbean dances with . [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. Video. Much of the literature calls upon researchers to go beyond bureaucratic protocols to protect communities from harm, but rather use their research to benefit communities that they work with. As a teenager, she won a scholarship to the Dunham school and later became a dancer with the company, before beginning her successful singing career. 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. ", While in Europe, she also influenced hat styles on the continent as well as spring fashion collections, featuring the Dunham line and Caribbean Rhapsody, and the Chiroteque Franaise made a bronze cast of her feet for a museum of important personalities.". She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company. Katherine Dunham is credited Her dance troupe in venues around. When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Dunham continued to develop dozens of new productions during this period, and the company met with enthusiastic audiences in every city. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Video. It was a venue for Dunham to teach young black dancers about their African heritage. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. As a student, she studied under anthropologists such as A.R. In 1987 she received the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, and was also inducted into the. Her mission was to help train the Senegalese National Ballet and to assist President Leopold Senghor with arrangements for the First Pan-African World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar (196566). The PATC teaching staff was made up of former members of Dunham's touring company, as well as local residents. The Black Tradition in American Modern Dance. "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' Leverne Backstrom, president of the board of the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, still does. New York: Rizzoli, 1989. Called the Matriarch of Black Dance, her groundbreaking repertoire combined innovative interpretations of Caribbean dances, traditional ballet, African rituals and African American rhythms to create the Dunham Technique, which she performed with her dance troupe in venues around the world. Example. In the mid-1950s, Dunham and her company appeared in three films: Mambo (1954), made in Italy; Die Grosse Starparade (1954), made in Germany; and Msica en la Noche (1955), made in Mexico City. 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. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. She lectured every summer until her death at annual Masters' Seminars in St. Louis, which attracted dance students from around the world. [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. 288 pages, Hardcover. Katherine returnedto to the usa in 1931 miss Dunham met one of. for the developing one of the the world performed many of her. As a choreographer, anthropologist, educator, and activist, Katherine Dunham transformed the field of dance in the twentieth century. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) is revered as one of the great pillars of American dance history. Its premiere performance on December 9, 1950, at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile,[39][40] generated considerable public interest in the early months of 1951. [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. ", Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:48. 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. 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. The State Department regularly subsidized other less well-known groups, but it consistently refused to support her company (even when it was entertaining U.S. Army troops), although at the same time it did not hesitate to take credit for them as "unofficial artistic and cultural representatives". Birth Year: 1956. For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. Claude Conyers, "Film Choreography by Katherine Dunham, 19391964," in Clark and Johnson. [61][62][63][64] During this time, in addition to Dunham, numerous Black women such as Zora Neal Hurston, Caroline Bond Day, Irene Diggs, and Erna Brodber were also working to transform the discipline into an anthropology of liberation: employing critical and creative cultural production.[54]. See "Selected Bibliography of Writings by Katherine Dunham" in Clark and Johnson. Katherine Dunham. The Dunham troupe toured for two decades, stirring audiences around the globe with their dynamic and highly theatrical performances. Jobson, Ryan Cecil. 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. However, after her father remarried, Albert Sr. and his new wife, Annette Poindexter Dunham, took in Katherine and her brother. Kraut, Anthea. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy. He had been a promising philosophy professor at Howard University and a protg of Alfred North Whitehead. New York City, U.S. [17] She was one of the first African-American women to attend this college and to earn these degrees. (She later wrote Journey to Accompong, a book describing her experiences there.) She was one of the first researchers in anthropology to use her research of Afro-Haitian dance and culture for remedying racist misrepresentation of African culture in the miseducation of Black Americans. In recognition of her stance, President Aristide later awarded her a medal of Haiti's highest honor. If Cities Could Dance: East St. Louis. Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City, became prominent in the field of modern dance. 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. 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. Using some ballet vernacular, Dunham incorporates these principles into a set of class exercises she labeled as "processions". Video. [13], Dunham officially joined the department in 1929 as an anthropology major,[13] while studying dances of the African diaspora. Last Name Dunham #5. A fictional work based on her African experiences, Kasamance: A Fantasy, was published in 1974. [1] Dunham also created the Dunham Technique. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. Question 2. [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. American dancer and choreographer (19092006). 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. 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. 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. used throughout the world choros, rite de passage, los Idies, and. [26] This work was never produced in Joplin's lifetime, but since the 1970s, it has been successfully produced in many venues. She also danced professionally, owned a dance company, and operated a dance studio. He continued as her artistic collaborator until his death in 1986. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. Legendary dancer, choreographer and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born June 22, 1909, to an African American father and French-Canadian mother who died when she was young. On another occasion, in October 1944, after getting a rousing standing ovation in Louisville, Kentucky, she told the all-white audience that she and her company would not return because "your management will not allow people like you to sit next to people like us." Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. 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. As I document in my book Katherine Dunham: Dance and the . In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. Dunham early became interested in dance. In 1966, she served as a State Department representative for the United States to the first ever World Festival of Negro Arts in Dakar, Senegal. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". Intrigued by this theory, Dunham began to study African roots of dance and, in 1935, she traveled to the Caribbean for field research. from the University of Chicago, she had acquired a vast knowledge of the dances and rituals of the Black peoples of tropical America. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small suburb of Chicago, to Albert Millard Dunham, a tailor and dry cleaner, and his wife, Fanny June Dunham. From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. In 1967 she officially retired, after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. One recurring theme that I really . 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 . Katherine Johnson graduated from college at age 18. [58] Early on into graduate school, Dunham was forced to choose between finishing her master's degree in anthropology and pursuing her career in dance. He has released six stand-up specials and one album of Christmas songs. She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . Dance is an essential part of life that has always been with me. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200003840/. Born Katherine Coleman in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia . Educate, entertain, and engage with Factmonster. The show created a minor controversy in the press. Katherine Dunham facts for kids. Name: Mae C. Jemison. Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisaw Malinowski, A.R. In my mind, it's the most fascinating thing in the world to learn".[19]. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. "[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. 113 views, 2 likes, 4 loves, 0 comments, 6 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Institute for Dunham Technique Certification: Fun facts about Julie Belafonte brought to you by IDTC! Dunham technique is a codified dance training technique developed by Katherine Dunham in the mid 20th century. 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. 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 Dunham ended her fast only after exiled Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Jesse Jackson came to her and personally requested that she stop risking her life for this cause. 4 (December 2010): 640642. The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. [52], On May 21, 2006, Dunham died in her sleep from natural causes in New York City. Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. Anna Kisselgoff, a dance critic for The New York Times, called Dunham "a major pioneer in Black theatrical dance ahead of her time." The restructuring of heavy industry had caused the loss of many working-class jobs, and unemployment was high in the city. 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. Fun Facts. She felt it was necessary to use the knowledge she gained in her research to acknowledge that Africanist esthetics are significant to the cultural equation in American dance. 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. Kaiso is an Afro-Caribbean term denoting praise. She majored in anthropology at the University of Chicago, and after learning that much of Black . 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. Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. The company returned to New York. The critics acknowledged the historical research she did on dance in ancient Egypt, but they were not appreciative of her choreography as staged for this production.[25]. 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. Digital Library. When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. 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.