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. 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'. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) brought African dance aesthetics to the United States, forever influencing modern and jazz dance. 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. Example. 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. The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. 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. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 May 21, 2006)[1] was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Dunham Technique was created by Katherine Dunham, a legend in the worlds of dance and anthropology. In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. Dunham created many all-black dance groups. Katherine Dunham Helped Teach the World to Dance : NPR 1. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. [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. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. Decolonozing Anthropology: Katherine "the Great" Dunham Katherine returnedto to the usa in 1931 miss Dunham met one of. After her company performed successfully, Dunham was chosen as dance director of the Chicago Negro Theater Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. She lectured every summer until her death at annual Masters' Seminars in St. Louis, which attracted dance students from around the world. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. A fictional work based on her African experiences, Kasamance: A Fantasy, was published in 1974. 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. Birth Year: 1956. 8 Katherine Dunham facts - Katherine dunham "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' informed by new methods of america's most highly regarded. 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 . Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. She made national headlines by staging a hunger strike to protest the U.S. governments repatriation policy for Haitian immigrants. Dunham Company member Dana McBroom-Manno was selected as a featured artist in the show, which played on the Music Fair Circuit. These experiences provided ample material for the numerous books, articles and short stories Dunham authored. Katherine Dunham and her Haitian legacy - Dance Australia 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. Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. 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. Glory Van Scott and Jean-Lon Destin were among other former Dunham dancers who remained her lifelong friends. Here are 10 facts about her fascinating life. New York City, U.S. [14] Redfield, Herskovits, and Sapir's contributions to cultural anthropology, exposed Dunham to topics and ideas that inspired her creatively and professionally. As celebrities, their voices can have a profound influence on popular culture. Also that year they appeared in the first ever, hour-long American spectacular televised by NBC, when television was first beginning to spread across America. 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. Fun Facts. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of - Medium Dunham was active in human rights causes, and in 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees. Banks, Ojeya Cruz. Katherine Dunham | Smithsonian Institution About Miss Dunham - Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities 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. 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. 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. Her choreography and performances made use of a concept within Dance Anthropology called "research-to-performance". 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. "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,". Zombies, The Third Person, Intelligent Dancers, and Katherine Dunham (She later wrote Journey to Accompong, a book describing her experiences there.) Back in the United States she formed an all-black dance troupe, which in 1940 performed her Tropics and Le Jazz . Who Was Katherine Dunham??? by Adrianne Hoopes - Prezi 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). 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. He was the founder of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. Dunham, who died at the age of 96 [in 2006], was an anthropologist and political activist, especially on behalf of the rights of black people. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. Radcliffe-Brown, Fred Eggan, and many others that she met in and around the University of Chicago. Dunham is credited with introducing international audiences to African aesthetics and establishing African dance as a true art form. [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. [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. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy." Using some ballet vernacular, Dunham incorporates these principles into a set of class exercises she labeled as "processions". By Renata Sago. Kraut, Anthea. Called the Matriarch of Black Dance, her groundbreaking repertoire combined innovative interpretations of Caribbean dances, traditional ballet, African rituals and African American rhythms to create the Dunham Technique, which she performed with her dance troupe in venues around the world. 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. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. "My job", she said, "is to create a useful legacy. In 1945, Dunham opened and directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. Dunham had been invited to stage a new number for the popular, long-running musical revue Pins and Needles 1940, produced by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union. Search input Search submit button. Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora - Goodreads Short Biography. She is a celebrity dancer. Her technique was "a way of life". Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. In 1946, Dunham returned to Broadway for a revue entitled Bal Ngre, which received glowing notices from theater and dance critics. Katherine Dunham Facts for Kids The committee voted unanimously to award $2,400 (more than $40,000 in today's money) to support her fieldwork in the Caribbean. [34], According to Dunham, the development of her technique came out of a need for specialized dancers to support her choreographic visions and a greater yearning for technique that "said the things that [she] wanted to say. Katherine Dunham | Encyclopedia.com Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisaw Malinowski, A.R. 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. Dunham early became interested in dance. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. 52 Copy quote. 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. Claude Conyers, "Film Choreography by Katherine Dunham, 19391964," in Clark and Johnson. She was a woman far ahead of her time. Lyndon B. Johnson was in the audience for opening night. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . In 1987 she received the Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award, and was also inducted into the. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) is revered as one of the great pillars of American dance history. In 1992, at age 83, Dunham went on a highly publicized hunger strike to protest the discriminatory U.S. foreign policy against Haitian boat-people. It was a huge collection of writings by and about Katherine Dunham, so it naturally covered a lot of area. In 1940, she formed the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, which became the premier facility for training dancers. 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. Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. 2 (2012): 159168. The show created a minor controversy in the press. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. Dunham was both a popular entertainer and a serious artist intent on tracing the roots of Black culture. Interesting facts. From the 40s to the 60s, Dunham and her dance troupe toured to 57 countries of the world. In the mid-1930s she conducted anthropological research on dance and incorporated her findings into her choreography, blending the rhythms and movements of . At the age of 82, Dunham went on a hunger strike in . Katherine Dunham in 1956. Katherine Dunham. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." 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]. Dunham's mother, Fanny June Dunham (ne Taylor), who was of mixed French-Canadian and Native American heritage. She also danced professionally, owned a dance company, and operated a dance studio. She Learned From Katherine Dunham. At 93, She's Teaching Her Technique Katherine Dunham Biography for Kids - lottie.com About that time Dunham met and began to work with John Thomas Pratt, a Canadian who had become one of America's most renowned costume and theatrical set designers. Example. Katherine Dunham died on May 21 2006. Katherine Dunham facts for kids. 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. In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). 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. . She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. 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. Beda Schmid. While in Haiti, Dunham investigated Vodun rituals and made extensive research notes, particularly on the dance movements of the participants. Our site is COPPA and kidSAFE-certified, so you can rest assured it's a safe place for kids . Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. A dance choreographer. [22] 10 Facts About Katherine Johnson - Mental Floss 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." Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Katherine Dunham (born June 22, 1909) [1] [2] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. In 1935, Dunham received grants to conduct fieldwork in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Haiti to study Afro-Caribbean dance and other rituals. 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 Hollywood, Dunham refused to sign a lucrative studio contract when the producer said she would have to replace some of her darker-skinned company members. Based on her research in Martinique, this three-part performance integrated elements of a Martinique fighting dance into American ballet. 47 Copy quote. 3 (1992): 24. 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. Her legacy was far-reaching, both in dance and her cultural and social work. Text:. The Katherine Dunham Company toured throughout North America in the mid-1940s, performing as well in the racially segregated South. ", 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.". This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. Dunham was born in Chicago on June 22, 1909. [1] The Dunham Technique is still taught today. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. 6 Katherine Dunham facts. 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. [13], Dunham officially joined the department in 1929 as an anthropology major,[13] while studying dances of the African diaspora. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy. She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. 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. [60], However, this decision did not keep her from engaging with and highly influencing the discipline for the rest of her life and beyond. After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation.
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