She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. Katherine Johnson graduated from college at age 18. The original two-week engagement was extended by popular demand into a three-month run, after which the company embarked on an extensive tour of the United States and Canada. 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. Omissions? 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 Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays. Katherine Dunham. She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. Grow your vocab the fun way! 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. 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. Birthday : June 22, 1909. Best Known For: Mae C. Jemison is the . [4], Katherine Mary Dunham was born on 22 June 1909 in a Chicago hospital. 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 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. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. : Writings by and About Katherine Dunham. "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." 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. By the time she received an M.A. Born in Glen Ellyn, IL #6. Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist During World War II. In particular, Dunham is a model for the artist as activist. Katherine Dunham introduced African and Caribbean rhythms to modern dance. Nationality. theatrical designers john pratt. The highly respected Dance magazine did a feature cover story on Dunham in August 2000 entitled "One-Woman Revolution". [17] She was one of the first African-American women to attend this college and to earn these degrees. She had incurred the displeasure of departmental officials when her company performed Southland, a ballet that dramatized the lynching of a black man in the racist American South. She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. The finale to the first act of this show was Shango, a staged interpretation of a Vodun ritual, which became a permanent part of the company's repertory. most important pedagogues original work which includes :Batuada. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Katherine Dunham, June 22, Katherine Dunham was born to a French -Canadian woman and an African American man in the state of Chicago in America, Her birthday was 22nd June in the year 1909. . Although it was well received by the audience, local censors feared that the revealing costumes and provocative dances might compromise public morals. Katherine Dunham Quotes On Positivity. Q. Katherine Mary Dun ham was an African-American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. Katherine Dunham is the inventor of the Dunham technique and a renowned dancer and choreographer of African-American descent. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! 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. 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). The company soon embarked on a tour of venues in South America, Europe, and North Africa. Her many original works include Lagya, Shango and Bal Negre. 8 Katherine Dunham facts. Digital Library. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small . Search input Search submit button. ", Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:48. 30 seconds. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. On graduating with a bachelors degree in anthropology she undertook field studies in the Caribbean and in Brazil. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! But Dunham, who was Black and held a doctorate in anthropology, had hoped to spur a "cultural awakening on the East Side," she told . Her technique was "a way of life". Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Johnson 's gift for numbers allowed her to accelerate through her education. 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. Dancer. 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. 4 (December 2010): 640642. 7 Katherine Dunham facts. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of Black Dance'' as many called her, was a revolutionary African American anthropologist and professional dancer. [20] She recorded her findings through ethnographic fieldnotes and by learning dance techniques, music and song, alongside her interlocutors. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [9] In high school she joined the Terpsichorean Club and began to learn a kind of modern dance based on the ideas of Europeans [mile Jaques-Dalcroze] and [Rudolf von Laban]. "[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. 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. One example of this was studying how dance manifests within Haitian Vodou. 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. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance."[2]. American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. 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. 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. [18] to the Department of Anthropology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a master's degree. Dunham became interested in both writing and dance at a young age. In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. Text:. Other Interesting Katherine Dunham Facts And Trivia 'Come Back To Arizona', a short story Katherine Dunham penned when she was 12 years old, was published in 1921 in volume two of 'The Brownies' Book'. [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. Chin, Elizabeth. Although Dunham was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance. While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. Facts about Alvin Ailey talk about the famous African-American activist and choreographer. 3 (1992): 24. In 1935, Dunham received grants to conduct fieldwork in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Haiti to study Afro-Caribbean dance and other rituals. "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,". Died: May 21, 2006. 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). This was the beginning of more than 20 years during which Dunham performed with her company almost exclusively outside the United States. In my mind, it's the most fascinating thing in the world to learn".[19]. for the developing one of the the world performed many of her. Her alumni included many future celebrities, such as Eartha Kitt. 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. Photo provided by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Morris Library Special Collections Research Center. All rights reserved. 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 Dunham. Katherine Dunham. The restructuring of heavy industry had caused the loss of many working-class jobs, and unemployment was high in the city. USA. Katherine Dunham. In Boston, then a bastion of conservatism, the show was banned in 1944 after only one performance. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student at the University of Chicago. The Dunham company's international tours ended in Vienna in 1960. for teaching dance that is still la'ag'ya , Shange , Veraruzana, nanigo. [52], On May 21, 2006, Dunham died in her sleep from natural causes in New York City. From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. 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. 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". [1] She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US. 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. and creative team that lasted. [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. [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. Katherine Dunham PhB'36. The result of this trip was Dunham's Master's thesis entitled "The Dances of Haiti". 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. Fighting, Alive, Have Faith. 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. 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. Fun facts. 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. 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. She decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. Birth date: October 17, 1956. "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' The impresario Sol Hurok, manager of Dunham's troupe for a time, once had Ms. Dunham's legs insured for $250,000. ", Black writer Arthur Todd described her as "one of our national treasures". 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. Dance is an essential part of life that has always been with me. As a result, Dunham would later experience some diplomatic "difficulties" on her tours. 6 Katherine Dunham facts. 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. She returned to graduate school and submitted a master's thesis to the anthropology faculty. 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. [4] In 1938, using materials collected ethnographic fieldwork, Dunham submitted a thesis, The Dances of Haiti: A Study of Their Material Aspect, Organization, Form, and Function,. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 May 21, 2006)[1] was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. VV A. Clark and Sara E. Johnson, editors, Joliet Central High School Yearbook, 1928. She did not complete the other requirements for that degree, however, as she realized that her professional calling was performance and choreography. 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]. Chin, Elizabeth. It opened in Chicago in 1933, with a black cast and with Page dancing the title role. 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. . She also continued refining and teaching the Dunham Technique to transmit that knowledge to succeeding generations of dance students. 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. It was a venue for Dunham to teach young black dancers about their African heritage. Video. Dunham also created the well-known Dunham Technique [1]. After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. Childhood & Early Life. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. Katherine Dunham facts for kids. 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. She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US [1]. 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". [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. 2 (2020): 259271. However, it has now became a common practice within the discipline. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Katherine Dunham. [14] Redfield, Herskovits, and Sapir's contributions to cultural anthropology, exposed Dunham to topics and ideas that inspired her creatively and professionally. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. [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. 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. She wrote that he "opened the floodgates of anthropology" for her. 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). [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. She majored in anthropology at the University of Chicago, and after learning that much of Black . 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. 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. forming a powerful personal. Last Name Dunham #5. 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 December 1951, a photo of Dunham dancing with Ismaili Muslim leader Prince Ali Khan at a private party he had hosted for her in Paris appeared in a popular magazine and fueled rumors that the two were romantically linked. Her mother passed away when Katherine was only 3 years old. Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. Katherine Dunham was a rebel among rebels. International dance icon Katherine Dunham (right,) also an anthropologist, founded an art museum in East St. Louis, IL. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. Dancer Born in Illinois #12. [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]. 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. Additionally, she worked closely with Vera Mirova who specialized in "Oriental" dance. Katherine Dunham and John Pratt married in 1949 to adopt Marie-Christine, a French 14-month-old baby. Tune in & learn about the inception of. [3] She created many all-black dance groups. On one of these visits, during the late 1940s, she purchased a large property of more than seven hectares (approximately 17.3 acres) in the Carrefours suburban area of Port-au-Prince, known as Habitation Leclerc. 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. Both remained close friends of Dunham for many years, until her death. Later Dunham established a second home in Senegal, and she occasionally returned there to scout for talented African musicians and dancers. Retrieved from the Library of Congress,
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