In 1947 it was expanded and granted a charter as the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts. [22] On graduating with a bachelors degree in anthropology she undertook field studies in the Caribbean and in Brazil. 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. movement and expression. Lyndon B. Johnson was in the audience for opening night. Dunham Technique was created by Katherine Dunham, a legend in the worlds of dance and anthropology. As a choreographer, anthropologist, educator, and activist, Katherine Dunham transformed the field of dance in the twentieth century. (She later wrote Journey to Accompong, a book describing her experiences there.) Numerous scholars describe Dunham as pivotal to the fields of Dance Education, Applied Anthropology, Humanistic Anthropology, African Diasporic Anthropology and Liberatory Anthropology. Dunham accepted a position at Southern Illinois University in East St. Louis in the 1960s. [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. Katherine Mary Dunham was born in Chicago in 1909. Katherine Dunham, was mounted at the Women's Center on the campus. She also created several other works of choreography, including The Emperor Jones (a response to the play by Eugene O'Neill) and Barrelhouse. 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. Although Dunham was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance. 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. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. 4 (December 2010): 640642. What are some fun facts about Katherine Dunham? She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. She choreographed for Broadway stage productions and operaincluding Aida (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera. Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. Radcliffe-Brown, Fred Eggan, and many others that she met in and around the University of Chicago. Katherine Dunham on dance anthropology. Additionally, she was named one of the most influential African American anthropologists. 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. Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. Artists are necessary to social justice movements; they are the ones who possess a gift to see beyond the bleak present and imagine a better future. 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 . [26] This work was never produced in Joplin's lifetime, but since the 1970s, it has been successfully produced in many venues. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190264871.003.0001, "Dunham Technique: Fall and recovery with body roll", "Katherine Dunham on need for Dunham Technique", "The Negro Problem in a Class Society: 19511960 Brazil", "Katherine Dunham, Dance Icon, Dies at 96", "Candace Award Recipients 19821990, Page 1", "Katherine the Great: 2004 Lifetime Achievement Awardee Katherine Dunham", Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology, Katherine Dunham on her anthropological films, Guide to the Photograph Collection on Katherine Dunham, Katherine Dunham's oral history video excerpts, "Katherine Dunham on Overcoming 1940s Racism", Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, Recalling Choreographer and Activist Dunham, "How Katherine Dunham Revealed Black Dance to the World", Katherine Dunham, Dance Pioneer, Dies at 96, "On Stage and Backstage withTalented Katherine Dunham, Master Dance Designer", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katherine_Dunham&oldid=1139015494, American people of French-Canadian descent, 20th-century African-American politicians, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, In 1971 she received the Heritage Award from the, In 1983 she was a recipient of one of the highest artistic awards in the United States, the. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. With choreography characterized by exotic sexuality, both became signature works in the Dunham repertory. She also appeared in the Broadway musicals "Bal . Writings by and about Katherine Dunham" , Katherine Dunham, 2005. In 1935, Dunham received grants to conduct fieldwork in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Haiti to study Afro-Caribbean dance and other rituals. [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. Katherine Mary Dunham, 22 Jun 1909 - 21 May 2006 Exhibition Label Born Glen Ellyn, Illinois One of the founders of the anthropological dance movement, Katherine Dunham distilled Caribbean and African dance elements into modern American choreography. Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City, became prominent in the field of modern dance. In her biography, Joyce Aschenbrenner (2002), credits Ms Dunham as the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance", and describes her work as: "fundamentally . While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. (Below are 10 Katherine Dunham quotes on positivity. Through her ballet teachers, she was also exposed to Spanish, East Indian, Javanese, and Balinese dance forms.[23]. [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". Photo provided by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Morris Library Special Collections Research Center. Chin, Elizabeth. 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. Born: June 22, 1909. [13] Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance. The Dunham troupe toured for two decades, stirring audiences around the globe with their dynamic and highly theatrical performances. 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. Born in 1909 #28. - Pic Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. A key reason for this choice was because she knew that through dance, her work would be able to be accessed by a wider array of audiences; more so than if she continued to limit her work within academia. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. [ ] Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909 (age 96) in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. 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." While in Haiti, Dunham investigated Vodun rituals and made extensive research notes, particularly on the dance movements of the participants. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. Based on this success, the entire company was engaged for the 1940 Broadway production Cabin in the Sky, staged by George Balanchine and starring Ethel Waters. [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. Here are 10 facts about her fascinating life. Her father, Albert Millard Dunham, was a descendant of slaves from West Africa and Madagascar. Jobson, Ryan Cecil. A fictional work based on her African experiences, Kasamance: A Fantasy, was published in 1974. They had particular success in Denmark and France. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. Fun facts. The company soon embarked on a tour of venues in South America, Europe, and North Africa. Dunham is still taught at widely recognized dance institutions such as The American Dance Festival and The Ailey School. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. The Dunham company's international tours ended in Vienna in 1960. All rights reserved. Classes are led by Ruby Streate, director of dance and education and artistic director of the Katherine Dunham Children's Workshop. 8 Katherine Dunham facts. Understanding that the fact was due to racial discrimination, she made sure the incident was publicized. She decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. In 1928, while still an undergraduate, Dunham began to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, a Russian dancer who had settled in Chicago, after having come to the United States with the Franco-Russian vaudeville troupe Le Thtre de la Chauve-Souris, directed by impresario Nikita Balieff. Some Facts. 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 . They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. 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. 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 program she created runs to this day at the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, revolutionizing lives with dance and culture. 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). 7 Katherine Dunham facts. 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. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. ", Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:48. Genres Novels. At the age of 82, Dunham went on a hunger strike in . Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham. In 19341936, Dunham performed as a guest artist with the ballet company of the Chicago Opera. First Name Katherine #37. 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. Birth Country: United States. Katherine Dunham was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, author, scholar, anthropologist and Civil Rights activist. ", 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. Kraut, Anthea. As a graduate student in anthropology in the mid-1930s, she conducted dance research in the Caribbean. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy." 2 (2012): 159168. Othella Dallas, 93, still teaches Katherine Dunham technique, which she learned from Dunham herself. Katherine Mary Dunham (also known as Kaye Dunn, June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, and social activist. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. [17] She was one of the first African-American women to attend this college and to earn these degrees. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. 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. Katherine Dunham. ", 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. Another fact is that it was the sometime home of the pioneering black American dancer Katherine Dunham. 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. These exercises prepare the dancers for African social and spiritual dances[31] that are practiced later in the class including the Mahi,[32] Yonvalou,[33] and Congo Paillette. 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. used throughout the world choros, rite de passage, los Idies, and. Katherine Dunham, pseudonym Kaye Dunn, (born June 22, 1909, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, U.S.died May 21, 2006, New York, New York), American dancer and choreographer who was a pioneer in the field of dance anthropology. In 1967 she officially retired, after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200003840/. Anna Kisselgoff, a dance critic for The New York Times, called Dunham "a major pioneer in Black theatrical dance ahead of her time." Childhood & Early Life. 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. 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 . . She was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors Award, the Plaque d'Honneur Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce Award, and a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Example. She also choreographed and starred in dance sequences in such films as Carnival of Rhythm (1942), Stormy Weather (1943), and Casbah (1947). [37] One historian noted that "during the course of the tour, Dunham and the troupe had recurrent problems with racial discrimination, leading her to a posture of militancy which was to characterize her subsequent career."[38]. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York. Katherine Dunham. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy. Dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1910, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small suburb of . 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). 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. He had been a promising philosophy professor at Howard University and a protg of Alfred North Whitehead. 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]. 1. Katherine Dunham got an early bachelor's degree in anthropology as a student at the University of Chicago. "What Dunham gave modern dance was a coherent lexicon of African and Caribbean styles of movementa flexible torso and spine, articulated pelvis and isolation of the limbs, a polyrhythmic strategy of movingwhich she integrated with techniques of ballet and modern dance." From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. However, it has now became a common practice within the discipline. Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. [14] Redfield, Herskovits, and Sapir's contributions to cultural anthropology, exposed Dunham to topics and ideas that inspired her creatively and professionally. 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. After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. It was a huge collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, so it naturally covered a lot of area. For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. ..American Anthropologist.. 112, no. Keep reading for more such interesting quotes at Kidadl!) [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. There, he ran a dry cleaning business in a place mostly occupied by white people. "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,". [12] 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. [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]. [15] Dunham's relationship with Redfield in particular was highly influential. Claude Conyers, "Film Choreography by Katherine Dunham, 19391964," in Clark and Johnson. The PATC teaching staff was made up of former members of Dunham's touring company, as well as local residents.