She made world tours as a dancer, choreographer, and director of her own dance company. 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. By Renata Sago. All rights reserved. Her legacy was far-reaching, both in dance and her cultural and social work. What are some fun facts about Katherine Dunham? Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. Dunham created many all-black dance groups. There, he ran a dry cleaning business in a place mostly occupied by white people. She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. Dunham was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, boycotting segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination. 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. [20] She also became friends with, among others, Dumarsais Estim, then a high-level politician, who became president of Haiti in 1949.
Stormy Weather (1943 film) - Wikipedia In August she was awarded a bachelor's degree, a Ph.B., bachelor of philosophy, with her principal area of study being social anthropology. Video. Dunham continued to develop dozens of new productions during this period, and the company met with enthusiastic audiences in every city. [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. Her work helped send astronauts to the . From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. 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.
Biography of Jeff Dunham, Comedian and Ventriloquist Early in 1936, she arrived in Haiti, where she remained for several months, the first of her many extended stays in that country through her life. [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. 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. Childhood & Early Life. She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . for the developing one of the the world performed many of her. Chin, Elizabeth.
Katherine Dunham: legendary dancer who founded the 1st American black Dunham was exposed to sacred ritual dances performed by people on the islands of Haiti and Jamaica. From the beginning of their association, around 1938, Pratt designed the sets and every costume Dunham ever wore. A dance choreographer. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. [20] She recorded her findings through ethnographic fieldnotes and by learning dance techniques, music and song, alongside her interlocutors.
Katherine Dunham - Students | Britannica Kids | Homework Help 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. [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. 288 pages, Hardcover. In 1946, Dunham returned to Broadway for a revue entitled Bal Ngre, which received glowing notices from theater and dance critics.
About Miss Dunham - Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. "[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. If Cities Could Dance: East St. Louis. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. 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. While trying to help the young people in the community, Dunham was arrested. 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. 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. Katherine Dunham. The company returned to New York.
Katherine Dunham Facts for Kids Katherine Dunham Quotes On Positivity. She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. The Met Ballet Company dancers studied Dunham Technique at Dunham's 42nd Street dance studio for the entire summer leading up to the season opening of Aida. Dunham married Jordis McCoo, a black postal worker, in 1931, but he did not share her interests and they gradually drifted apart, finally divorcing in 1938.
I Took A Katherine Dunham-Technique Dance Class And Learned - Essence As I document in my book Katherine Dunham: Dance and the . Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried.
Zombies, The Third Person, Intelligent Dancers, and Katherine Dunham 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. Dunham technique is a codified dance training technique developed by Katherine Dunham in the mid 20th century. (She later wrote Journey to Accompong, a book describing her experiences there.) Birth City: Decatur. 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. She was the first American dancer to present indigenous forms on a concert stage, the first to sustain a black dance company. She created and performed in works for stage, clubs, and Hollywood films; she started a school and a technique that continue to flourish; she fought unstintingly for racial justice. Long, Richard A, and Joe Nash. Johnson 's gift for numbers allowed her to accelerate through her education. Based on her research in Martinique, this three-part performance integrated elements of a Martinique fighting dance into American ballet. Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. 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. Childhood & Early Life. One of her fellow professors, with whom she collaborated, was architect Buckminster Fuller. The Washington Post called her "dancer Katherine the Great." In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. On February 22, 2022, Selkirk will offer a unique, one-lot auction titled, Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Ephemera And Documents. For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. In the mid-1930s she conducted anthropological research on dance and incorporated her findings into her choreography, blending the rhythms and movements of . 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. 1910-2006. Dancers are frequently instructed to place weight on the balls of their feet, lengthen their lumbar and cervical spines, and breathe from the abdomen and not the chest. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. Dancer Born in Illinois #12. He needn't have bothered. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. Katherine Dunham in 1956. [5] Along with the Great Migration, came White flight and her aunt Lulu's business suffered and ultimately closed as a result. Dunham Technique was created by Katherine Dunham, a legend in the worlds of dance and anthropology. Beautiful, Justice, Black. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance."[2]. 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. 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 PhB'36. Katherine Dunham. 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. Dunham early became interested in dance. 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. See "Selected Bibliography of Writings by Katherine Dunham" in Clark and Johnson. 6 Katherine Dunham facts. The incident was widely discussed in the Brazilian press and became a hot political issue. 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. Dancer. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. London: Zed Books, 1999. [4], Katherine Mary Dunham was born on 22 June 1909 in a Chicago hospital. Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. 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. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. This led to a custody battle over Katherine and her brother, brought on by their maternal relatives. The first work, entitled A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood, was published in 1959. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
. Transforming Anthropology 20 (2012): 159168. ((Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum Photograph and Prints collection. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th . But what set her work even further apart from Martha Graham and Jos Limn was her fusion of that foundation with Afro-Caribbean styles. 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. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. Example. Kraut, Anthea. 2 (2020): 259271. She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. 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].
Decolonozing Anthropology: Katherine "the Great" Dunham In her biography, Joyce Aschenbrenner (2002), credits Ms Dunham as the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance", and describes her work as: "fundamentally . She wanted to know not only how people danced but why they dance. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. movement and expression. [3] Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. Dunham also received a grant to work with Professor Melville Herskovits of Northwestern University, whose ideas about retention of African culture among African Americans served as a base for her research in the Caribbean. Occupation(s): Dunham, Katherine dnm . 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.
Who Was Katherine Dunham??? by Adrianne Hoopes - Prezi Katherine Dunham is the inventor of the Dunham technique and a renowned dancer and choreographer of African-American descent. Katherine Dunham and John Pratt married in 1949 to adopt Marie-Christine, a French 14-month-old baby. [15] Dunham's relationship with Redfield in particular was highly influential. 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. While a student at the University of Chicago, Dunham also performed as a dancer, ran a dance school, and earned an early bachelor's degree in anthropology. 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. Her choreography and performances made use of a concept within Dance Anthropology called "research-to-performance". 30 seconds. This was the beginning of more than 20 years during which Dunham performed with her company almost exclusively outside the United States. Katherine Dunham, a world-renowned dancer and choreographer, had big plans for East St. Louis in 1977. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. 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. [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. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. 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). A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! [26] This work was never produced in Joplin's lifetime, but since the 1970s, it has been successfully produced in many venues. Two years later she formed an all-Black company, which began touring extensively by 1943. Interesting facts.
Katherine Dunham - Dancing with History Katherine was also an activist, author, educator, and anthropologist. 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. 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. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. ", Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:48. Known for her many innovations, Dunham developed a dance pedagogy, later named the Dunham Technique, a style of movement and exercises based in traditional African dances, to support her choreography. At the recommendation of her mentor Melville Herskovits, PhB'20a Northwestern University anthropologist and African studies expertDunham's calling cards read both "dancer" and . Genres Novels. [54] Her legacy within Anthropology and Dance Anthropology continues to shine with each new day. The impresario Sol Hurok, manager of Dunham's troupe for a time, once had Ms. Dunham's legs insured for $250,000. 47 Copy quote. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. She built her own dance empire and was hailed as the queen of black dance. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology." [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Lloyd Warner and Bronisaw Malinowski. Video.
Katherine Dunham Timeline | Articles and Essays | Selections from the Claude Conyers, "Film Choreography by Katherine Dunham, 19391964," in Clark and Johnson. 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. 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. Another fact is that it was the sometime home of the pioneering black American dancer Katherine Dunham. [28] Strongly founded in her anthropological research in the Caribbean, Dunham technique introduces rhythm as the backbone of various widely known modern dance principles including contraction and release,[29] groundedness, fall and recover,[30] counterbalance, and many more. Dunham is still taught at widely recognized dance institutions such as The American Dance Festival and The Ailey School. In 1978, an anthology of writings by and about her, also entitled Kaiso! 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). [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. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. This meant neither of the children were able to settle into a home for a few years. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham".
Katherine Dunham's Mark on Jazz Dance | Jazz Dance: A History of the Othella Dallas, 93, still teaches Katherine Dunham technique, which she learned from Dunham herself. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools.
Katherine Dunham Bio - Institute for Dunham Technique Certification Dun ham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. She also created several other works of choreography, including The Emperor Jones (a response to the play by Eugene O'Neill) and Barrelhouse. Fun facts. [54] Her dance education, while offering cultural resources for dealing with the consequences and realities of living in a racist environment, also brought about feelings of hope and dignity for inspiring her students to contribute positively to their own communities, and spreading essential cultural and spiritual capital within the U.S.[54], Just like her colleague Zora Neale Hurston, Dunham's anthropology inspired the blurring of lines between creative disciplines and anthropology. She choreographed for Broadway stage productions and operaincluding Aida (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera. [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. Gender: Female. 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. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Two Avant-Garde Women Who Took Big Risks in Chicago's Art Scene Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of - Medium Jobson, Ryan Cecil. 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. Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. She majored in anthropology at the University of Chicago, and after learning that much of Black . Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, creator of the Dunham Technique, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. Tune in & learn about the inception of. The prince was then married to actress Rita Hayworth, and Dunham was now legally married to John Pratt; a quiet ceremony in Las Vegas had taken place earlier in the year. One example of this was studying how dance manifests within Haitian Vodou.
Katherine Dunham and her Haitian legacy - Dance Australia Dunham created Rara Tonga and Woman with a Cigar at this time, which became well known. ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). 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 passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at the age of 96. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! ", 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.". Although Dunham was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance. She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. from the University of Chicago, she had acquired a vast knowledge of the dances and rituals of the Black peoples of tropical America. 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. The next year, after the US entered World War II, Dunham appeared in the Paramount musical film Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) in a specialty number, "Sharp as a Tack," with Eddie "Rochester" Anderson.