By drawing on a vast, never-utilized trove of archival materials along with oral histories, choreographic analysis, and embodied research, Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora offers new insight about how this remarkable woman built political solidarity through the arts. As one of her biographers, Joyce Aschenbrenner, wrote: "anthropology became a life-way"[2] for Dunham. "My job", she said, "is to create a useful legacy. A dance choreographer. 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. [3] She created many all-black dance groups. Dunham was both a popular entertainer and a serious artist intent on tracing the roots of Black culture. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. 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. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . Katherine Dunham was an American dancer and choreographer, credited to have brought the influence of Africa and the Caribbean into American dance . Dunham early became interested in dance. Fun facts. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! [1] She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US. Most Popular #73650. 2 (2012): 159168. The highly respected Dance magazine did a feature cover story on Dunham in August 2000 entitled "One-Woman Revolution". Subsequently, Dunham undertook various choreographic commissions at several venues in the United States and in Europe. There, her father ran a dry-cleaning business.[8]. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. 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. As a choreographer, anthropologist, educator, and activist, Katherine Dunham transformed the field of dance in the twentieth century. Text:. 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. While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. 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. Best Known For: Mae C. Jemison is the . In 1940, she formed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, which became the premier facility for training dancers. She choreographed for Broadway stage productions and operaincluding Aida (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera. THE DIGITAL REPOSITORY FOR THE BLACK EXPERIENCE. [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]. The Katherine Dunham Company became an incubator for many well known performers, including Archie Savage, Talley Beatty, Janet Collins, Lenwood Morris, Vanoye Aikens, Lucille Ellis, Pearl Reynolds, Camille Yarbrough, Lavinia Williams, and Tommy Gomez. In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. [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. 2023 The HistoryMakers. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. Charm Dance from "L'Ag'Ya". Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. 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." Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. Katherine Dunham and John Pratt married in 1949 to adopt Marie-Christine, a French 14-month-old baby. [8], Despite her choosing dance, Dunham often voiced recognition of her debt to the discipline: "without [anthropology] I don't know what I would have done.In anthropology, I learned how to feel about myself in relation to other people. 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]. forming a powerful personal. In 1978, an anthology of writings by and about her, also entitled Kaiso! By the time she received an M.A. After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. Other movies she performed in as a dancer during this period included the Abbott and Costello comedy Pardon My Sarong (1942) and the black musical Stormy Weather (1943), which featured a stellar range of actors, musicians and dancers.[24]. In 1947 it was expanded and granted a charter as the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts. Glory Van Scott and Jean-Lon Destin were among other former Dunham dancers who remained her lifelong friends. Dunham, Katherine Mary (1909-2006) By Das, Joanna Dee. 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'. When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. Name: Mae C. Jemison. She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. teaches us about the impact Katherine Dunham left on the dance community & on the world. Dunham considered some really important and interesting issues, like how class and race issues translate internationally, being accepted into new communities, different types of being black, etc. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. 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. It was a huge collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, so it naturally covered a lot of area. Katherine Dunham, was published in a limited, numbered edition of 130 copies by the Institute for the Study of Social Change. 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. In her biography, Joyce Aschenbrenner (2002), credits Ms Dunham as the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance", and describes her work as: "fundamentally . ", Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:48. The impresario Sol Hurok, manager of Dunham's troupe for a time, once had Ms. Dunham's legs insured for $250,000. Throughout her career, Dunham occasionally published articles about her anthropological research (sometimes under the pseudonym of Kaye Dunn) and sometimes lectured on anthropological topics at universities and scholarly societies.[27]. [4], Katherine Mary Dunham was born on 22 June 1909 in a Chicago hospital. Birthday : June 22, 1909. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. [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. [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. 4 (December 2010): 640642. 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. Here are some interesting facts about Alvin Ailey for you: Facts about Alvin Ailey 1: the popular modern dance Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. ", "Dunham's European success led to considerable imitation of her work in European revues it is safe to say that the perspectives of concert-theatrical dance in Europe were profoundly affected by the performances of the Dunham troupe. [59] She ultimately chose to continue her career in dance without her master's degree in anthropology. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. 288 pages, Hardcover. Check out this biography to know about his childhood, family life, achievements and fun facts about him. The 1940s and 1950s saw the successors to the pioneers, give rise to such new stylistic variations through the work of artistic giants such as Jos Limn and Merce Cunningham. She wrote that he "opened the floodgates of anthropology" for her. Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. Katherine Dunham. Johnson 's gift for numbers allowed her to accelerate through her education. [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. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. Her father was of black ancestry, a descendant of slaves from West Africa and Madagascar, while her mother belonged to mixed French-Canadian and Native . Katherine Dunham in 1956. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. Chin, Elizabeth. Tune in & learn about the inception of. "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." "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. 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. Beda Schmid. [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. 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). 6 Katherine Dunham facts. She made national headlines by staging a hunger strike to protest the U.S. governments repatriation policy for Haitian immigrants. 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. Katherine Dunham. [10], After completing her studies at Joliet Junior College in 1928, Dunham moved to Chicago to join her brother Albert at the University of Chicago. Her many original works include Lagya, Shango and Bal Negre. 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. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. 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. In 1978 Dunham was featured in the PBS special, Divine Drumbeats: Katherine Dunham and Her People, narrated by James Earl Jones, as part of the Dance in America series. [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. Omissions? What are some fun facts about Katherine Dunham? Childhood & Early Life. 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. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. Katherine Dunham. In Boston, then a bastion of conservatism, the show was banned in 1944 after only one performance. As a dancer and choreographer, Katherine Dunham (1910-2002) wowed audiences in the 1930s and 1940s when she combined classical ballet with African rhythms to create an exciting new dance style. Example. There she met John Pratt, an artist and designer and they got married in 1941 until his death in 1986. [6][10] While still a high school student, she opened a private dance school for young black children. Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. Also Known For : . ", 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. [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. The Dunham troupe toured for two decades, stirring audiences around the globe with their dynamic and highly theatrical performances. Last Name Dunham #5. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. Katherine Dunham is credited Her dance troupe in venues around. Fighting, Alive, Have Faith. Years later, after extensive studies and initiations in Haiti,[21] she became a mambo in the Vodun religion. Classes are led by Ruby Streate, director of dance and education and artistic director of the Katherine Dunham Children's Workshop. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. The Washington Post called her "dancer Katherine the Great." 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. New York City, U.S. Katherine Dunham PhB'36. 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. 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. In August she was awarded a bachelor's degree, a Ph.B., bachelor of philosophy, with her principal area of study being social anthropology.
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