Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist During World War II. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. Facts about Alvin Ailey talk about the famous African-American activist and choreographer. Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. Dancer Born in Illinois #12. Banks, Ojeya Cruz. 3 (1992): 24. [1] Dunham also created the Dunham Technique. She . A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! movement and expression. The Katherine Dunham Museum is located at 1005 Pennsylvania Avenue, East St. Louis, Illinois. 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. 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. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. In 1986 the American Anthropological Association gave her a Distinguished Service Award. The impresario Sol Hurok, manager of Dunham's troupe for a time, once had Ms. Dunham's legs insured for $250,000. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. 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. Kraut, Anthea. Katherine Dunham, a world-renowned dancer and choreographer, had big plans for East St. Louis in 1977. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. 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. Check out this biography to know about his childhood, family life, achievements and fun facts about him. [54], Six decades before this new wave of anthropological discourse began, Katherine Dunham's work demonstrated anthropology being used as a force for challenging racist and colonial ideologies. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. Katherine Dunham, was published in a limited, numbered edition of 130 copies by the Institute for the Study of Social Change. The company returned to New York. She choreographed for Broadway stage productions and operaincluding Aida (1963) for the New York Metropolitan Opera. [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. 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. [13], Dunham officially joined the department in 1929 as an anthropology major,[13] while studying dances of the African diaspora. Charm Dance from "L'Ag'Ya". Video footage of Dunham technique classes show a strong emphasis on anatomical alignment, breath, and fluidity. Biography. 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. 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. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. 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]. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200003840/. 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. You can't learn about dances until you learn about people. 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. Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. Actress: Star Spangled Rhythm. 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. [14] Redfield, Herskovits, and Sapir's contributions to cultural anthropology, exposed Dunham to topics and ideas that inspired her creatively and professionally. 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. Despite these successes, the company frequently ran into periods of financial difficulties, as Dunham was required to support all of the 30 to 40 dancers and musicians. 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. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. 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. She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US [1]. 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. Even in retirement Dunham continued to choreograph: one of her major works was directing the premiere full, posthumous production Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha in 1972, a joint production of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Morehouse College chorus in Atlanta, conducted by Robert Shaw. Another fact is that it was the sometime home of the pioneering black American dancer Katherine Dunham. [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. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." Her work helped send astronauts to the . The result of this trip was Dunham's Master's thesis entitled "The Dances of Haiti". They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Dunham, Katherine dnm . 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. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York. Her the best movie is Casbah. This led to a custody battle over Katherine and her brother, brought on by their maternal relatives. On February 22, 2022, Selkirk will offer a unique, one-lot auction titled, Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Ephemera And Documents. In 2000 Katherine Dunham was named America's irreplaceable Dance Treasure. Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. Katherine Dunham in 1956. Katherine Dunham. In 1939, Dunham's company gave additional performances in Chicago and Cincinnati and then returned to New York. Barrelhouse. [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. She made national headlines by staging a hunger strike to protest the U.S. governments repatriation policy for Haitian immigrants. A carriage house on the grounds is to . 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. Katherine Johnson graduated from college at age 18. Tropics (choreographed 1937) and Le Jazz Hot (1938) were among the earliest of many works based on her research. Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisaw Malinowski, A.R. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . In 1940, she formed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, which became the premier facility for training dancers. [5] Along with the Great Migration, came White flight and her aunt Lulu's business suffered and ultimately closed as a result. ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). Some Facts. 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. 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. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! Her father, Albert Millard Dunham, was a descendant of slaves from West Africa and Madagascar. From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. She also continued refining and teaching the Dunham Technique to transmit that knowledge to succeeding generations of dance students. Using some ballet vernacular, Dunham incorporates these principles into a set of class exercises she labeled as "processions". Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. The living Dunham tradition has persisted. All rights reserved. Video. "My job", she said, "is to create a useful legacy. Occupation(s): These experiences provided ample material for the numerous books, articles and short stories Dunham authored. She also developed the Dunham Technique, a method of movement to support her dance works. Chin, Elizabeth. They were stranded without money because of bad management by their impresario. In addition, Dunham conducted special projects for African American high school students in Chicago; was artistic and technical director (196667) to the president of Senegal; and served as artist-in-residence, and later professor, at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and director of Southern Illinoiss Performing Arts Training Centre and Dynamic Museum in East St. Louis, Illinois. Additionally, she was named one of the most influential African American anthropologists. 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. 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. In 1967 she officially retired, after presenting a final show at the famous Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. most important pedagogues original work which includes :Batuada. 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. It was a venue for Dunham to teach young black dancers about their African heritage. Dunham also studied ballet with Mark Turbyfill and Ruth Page, who became prima ballerina of the Chicago Opera. Dunham early became interested in dance. Her many original works include Lagya, Shango and Bal Negre. She was hailed for her smooth and fluent choreography and dominated a stage with what has been described as 'an unmitigating radiant force providing beauty with a feminine touch full of variety and nuance. Episode 5 of Break the FACTS! [6][10] While still a high school student, she opened a private dance school for young black children. ", "Kaiso! ", "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. Dana McBroom-Manno still teaches Dunham Technique in New York City and is a Master of Dunham Technique. [54] Her legacy within Anthropology and Dance Anthropology continues to shine with each new day. 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." Here are 10 facts about her fascinating life. [20] She also became friends with, among others, Dumarsais Estim, then a high-level politician, who became president of Haiti in 1949. You dance because you have to. She returned to graduate school and submitted a master's thesis to the anthropology faculty. 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. Dunham created Rara Tonga and Woman with a Cigar at this time, which became well known. Unlike other modern dance creators who eschewed classical ballet, Dunham embraced it as a foundation for her technique. 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. 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. Short Biography. 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. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. Katherine Dunham facts for kids. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. 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. . Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. One of her fellow professors, with whom she collaborated, was architect Buckminster Fuller. Dance is an essential part of life that has always been with me. The program included courses in dance, drama, performing arts, applied skills, humanities, cultural studies, and Caribbean research. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. One of the most significant dancers, artists, and anthropologic figures of the 20th century, Katherine Dunham defied racial and gender boundaries during a . There she was able to bring anthropologists, sociologists, educational specialists, scientists, writers, musicians, and theater people together to create a liberal arts curriculum that would be a foundation for further college work. Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. Dancer. In Boston, then a bastion of conservatism, the show was banned in 1944 after only one performance. 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. 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. The program she created runs to this day at the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, revolutionizing lives with dance and culture. 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. Video. 30 seconds. Birth City: Decatur. - Pic Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. 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]. Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. 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. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. The show created a minor controversy in the press. In 1950, Sol Hurok presented Katherine Dunham and Her Company in a dance revue at the Broadway Theater in New York, with a program composed of some of Dunham's best works. 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. London: Zed Books, 1999. Dunham technique is also inviting to the influence of cultural movement languages outside of dance including karate and capoeira.[36]. With choreography characterized by exotic sexuality, both became signature works in the Dunham repertory. 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 accepted a position at Southern Illinois University in East St. Louis in the 1960s. In 1964, Dunham settled in East St. Louis, and took up the post of artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University in nearby Edwardsville. 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. Dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1910, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small suburb of . However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . Our site is COPPA and kidSAFE-certified, so you can rest assured it's a safe place for kids . A actor. In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. One recurring theme that I really . If Cities Could Dance: East St. Louis. Born: June 22, 1909. She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. Leverne Backstrom, president of the board of the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, still does. First Name Katherine #37. [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. Both remained close friends of Dunham for many years, until her death. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. He started doing stand-up comedy in the late 1980s. . Katherine Johnson, ne Katherine Coleman, also known as (1939-56) Katherine Goble, (born August 26, 1918, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, U.S.died February 24, 2020, Newport News, Virginia), American mathematician who calculated and analyzed the flight paths of many spacecraft during her more than three decades with the U.S. space program. [13] Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance. 7 Katherine Dunham facts. 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]. 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. In 1947 it was expanded and granted a charter as the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts. 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). ((Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum Photograph and Prints collection. It closed after only 38 performances. 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 . Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in American and European theater of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. Dunham was active in human rights causes, and in 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees. 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! 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. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. 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. In her biography, Joyce Aschenbrenner (2002), credits Ms Dunham as the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance", and describes her work as: "fundamentally . [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,. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. [16], After her research tour of the Caribbean in 1935, Dunham returned to Chicago in the late spring of 1936. He lived on 5 January 1931 and passed away on 1 December 1989. Her work inspired many. This was the beginning of more than 20 years during which Dunham performed with her company almost exclusively outside the United States. Katherine Dunham (born June 22, 1909) [1] [2] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. As a choreographer, anthropologist, educator, and activist, Katherine Dunham transformed the field of dance in the twentieth century. Childhood & Early Life. There, he ran a dry cleaning business in a place mostly occupied by white people. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. "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,". Video. One example of this was studying how dance manifests within Haitian Vodou. Subsequently, Dunham undertook various choreographic commissions at several venues in the United States and in Europe. 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. until hia death in the 1986. She also choreographed and appeared in Broadway musicals, operas and the film Cabin in the Sky. 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'.
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