She also choreographed and appeared in Broadway musicals, operas and the film Cabin in the Sky. 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. Both remained close friends of Dunham for many years, until her death. 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. ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). 8 Katherine Dunham facts. Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. He has released six stand-up specials and one album of Christmas songs. She decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. 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. [ ] Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909 (age 96) in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. Katherine Dunham. [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. In her biography, Joyce Aschenbrenner (2002), credits Ms Dunham as the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance", and describes her work as: "fundamentally . for teaching dance that is still la'ag'ya , Shange , Veraruzana, nanigo. Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. Ruth Page had written a scenario and choreographed La Guiablesse ("The Devil Woman"), based on a Martinican folk tale in Lafcadio Hearn's Two Years in the French West Indies. Katherine Dunham (born June 22, 1909) [1] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist [1]. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. [61][62][63][64] During this time, in addition to Dunham, numerous Black women such as Zora Neal Hurston, Caroline Bond Day, Irene Diggs, and Erna Brodber were also working to transform the discipline into an anthropology of liberation: employing critical and creative cultural production.[54]. He continued as her artistic collaborator until his death in 1986. In 1931, at the age of 21, Dunham formed a group called Ballets Ngres, one of the first black ballet companies in the United States. Katherine Dunham, was mounted at the Women's Center on the campus. 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". [60], However, this decision did not keep her from engaging with and highly influencing the discipline for the rest of her life and beyond. 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. 30 seconds. She also continued refining and teaching the Dunham Technique to transmit that knowledge to succeeding generations of dance students. 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. The first work, entitled A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood, was published in 1959. American dancer and choreographer (19092006). American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. Dunham early became interested in dance. However, it has now became a common practice within the discipline. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. While in Haiti, Dunham investigated Vodun rituals and made extensive research notes, particularly on the dance movements of the participants. 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 my mind, it's the most fascinating thing in the world to learn".[19]. 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. June 22 Dancer #4. 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. USA. A continuation based on her experiences in Haiti, Island Possessed, was published in 1969. By Renata Sago. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. The Dunham troupe toured for two decades, stirring audiences around the globe with their dynamic and highly theatrical performances. In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. theatrical designers john pratt. Her field work in the Caribbean began in Jamaica, where she lived for several months in the remote Maroon village of Accompong, deep in the mountains of Cockpit Country. Her father was given a number of important positions at court . 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. She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. [22] Died On : May 21, 2006. The incident was widely discussed in the Brazilian press and became a hot political issue. Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City, became prominent in the field of modern dance. 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. Fun Facts. The show created a minor controversy in the press. Chin, Elizabeth. Dancer Born in Illinois #12. On graduating with a bachelors degree in anthropology she undertook field studies in the Caribbean and in Brazil. [26] This work was never produced in Joplin's lifetime, but since the 1970s, it has been successfully produced in many venues. ", 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.". 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. 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. This meant neither of the children were able to settle into a home for a few years. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small . 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. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) brought African dance aesthetics to the United States, forever influencing modern and jazz dance. Years later, after extensive studies and initiations in Haiti,[21] she became a mambo in the Vodun religion. ((Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum Photograph and Prints collection. When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. "[35] Dunham explains that while she admired the narrative quality of ballet technique, she wanted to develop a movement vocabulary that captured the essence of the Afro-Caribbean dancers she worked with during her travels. [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. Text:. [20] She also became friends with, among others, Dumarsais Estim, then a high-level politician, who became president of Haiti in 1949. Born in 1909 #28. [59] She ultimately chose to continue her career in dance without her master's degree in anthropology. Dunham was active in human rights causes, and in 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees. Unlike other modern dance creators who eschewed classical ballet, Dunham embraced it as a foundation for her technique. Writings by and about Katherine Dunham" , Katherine Dunham, 2005. Dance is an essential part of life that has always been with me. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Katherine Dunham. . She wanted to know not only how people danced but why they dance. Through her ballet teachers, she was also exposed to Spanish, East Indian, Javanese, and Balinese dance forms.[23]. [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. Dunham also created the well-known Dunham Technique [1]. "In introducing authentic African dance-movements to her company and audiences, Dunhamperhaps more than any other choreographer of the timeexploded the possibilities of modern dance expression.". London: Zed Books, 1999. Birth date: October 17, 1956. Video. Never completing her required coursework for her graduate degree, she departed for Broadway and Hollywood. Katherine Dunham on dance anthropology. One recurring theme that I really . Nationality. [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. 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. Her mother passed away when Katherine was only 3 years old. Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. In response, the Afonso Arinos law was passed in 1951 that made racial discrimination in public places a felony in Brazil.[42][43][44][45][46][47]. They had particular success in Denmark and France. : Writings by and About Katherine Dunham. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . Banks, Ojeya Cruz. 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. All rights reserved. The company returned to New York. Chin, Elizabeth. Digital Library. They were stranded without money because of bad management by their impresario. Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. She also created several other works of choreography, including The Emperor Jones (a response to the play by Eugene O'Neill) and Barrelhouse. 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 . Born: June 22, 1909. 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. Back in the United States she formed an all-black dance troupe, which in 1940 performed her Tropics and Le Jazz . [15] Dunham's relationship with Redfield in particular was highly influential. 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. "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." Dunham passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at the age of 96. 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. [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. Some Facts. [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. Actress: Star Spangled Rhythm. Harrison, Faye V. "Decolonizing Anthropology Moving Further Toward and Anthropology for Liberation." [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. She returned to graduate school and submitted a master's thesis to the anthropology faculty. 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. Dunham was exposed to sacred ritual dances performed by people on the islands of Haiti and Jamaica. Based on her research in Martinique, this three-part performance integrated elements of a Martinique fighting dance into American ballet. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! Barrelhouse. After the tour, in 1945, the Dunham company appeared in the short-lived Blue Holiday at the Belasco Theater in New York, and in the more successful Carib Song at the Adelphi Theatre. Q. Katherine Mary Dun ham was an African-American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. She also choreographed and starred in dance sequences in such films as Carnival of Rhythm (1942), Stormy Weather (1943), and Casbah (1947). 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. Receiving a post graduate academic fellowship, she went to the Caribbean to study the African diaspora, ethnography and local dance. [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. Subsequently, Dunham undertook various choreographic commissions at several venues in the United States and in Europe. "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,". She is a celebrity dancer. After running it as a tourist spot, with Vodun dancing as entertainment, in the early 1960s, she sold it to a French entrepreneur in the early 1970s. The company soon embarked on a tour of venues in South America, Europe, and North Africa. [20] She recorded her findings through ethnographic fieldnotes and by learning dance techniques, music and song, alongside her interlocutors. Genres Novels. In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. Name: Mae C. Jemison. Short Biography. . 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]. Katherine Dunham was an American dancer and choreographer, credited to have brought the influence of Africa and the Caribbean into American dance . 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. Video. She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US [1]. Check out this biography to know about his childhood, family life, achievements and fun facts about him. But Dunham, who was Black and held a doctorate in anthropology, had hoped to spur a "cultural awakening on the East Side," she told . 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. [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 got an early bachelor's degree in anthropology as a student at the University of Chicago. The Black Tradition in American Modern Dance. ", Black writer Arthur Todd described her as "one of our national treasures". 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. 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. Pas de Deux from "L'Ag'Ya". A dance choreographer. 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, 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. Last Name Dunham #5. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. Johnson 's gift for numbers allowed her to accelerate through her education. 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. Katherine Dunham Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. for the developing one of the the world performed many of her. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. Many of Dunham students who attended free public classes in East St. Louis Illinois speak highly about the influence of her open technique classes and artistic presence in the city. [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. Another fact is that it was the sometime home of the pioneering black American dancer Katherine Dunham. [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. Occupation(s): Her many original works include Lagya, Shango and Bal Negre. In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. Two years later she formed an all-Black company, which began touring extensively by 1943. In 1939, Dunham's company gave additional performances in Chicago and Cincinnati and then returned to New York. Birthday : June 22, 1909. The impresario Sol Hurok, manager of Dunham's troupe for a time, once had Ms. Dunham's legs insured for $250,000. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance." She . Dunham, Katherine Mary (1909-2006) By Das, Joanna Dee. Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. Here are 10 facts about her fascinating life. This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham. 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). Please scroll down to enjoy more supporting materials. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. 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). Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist During World War II. 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! 4 (December 2010): 640642. In August she was awarded a bachelor's degree, a Ph.B., bachelor of philosophy, with her principal area of study being social anthropology. 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. She did this for many reasons. The troupe performed a suite of West Indian dances in the first half of the program and a ballet entitled Tropic Death, with Talley Beatty, in the second half. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology." Jobson, Ryan Cecil. Dunham became interested in both writing and dance at a young age. While Dunham was recognized as "unofficially" representing American cultural life in her foreign tours, she was given very little assistance of any kind by the U.S. State Department. 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. There, her father ran a dry-cleaning business.[8]. Numerous scholars describe Dunham as pivotal to the fields of Dance Education, Applied Anthropology, Humanistic Anthropology, African Diasporic Anthropology and Liberatory Anthropology. ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . Most Popular #73650. 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. Biography. ", "Kaiso! [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. Birth Year: 1956. When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. Transforming Anthropology 20 (2012): 159168. Dunham was both a popular entertainer and a serious artist intent on tracing the roots of Black culture. She arranged a fundraising cabaret for a Methodist Church, where she did her first public performance when she was 15 years old. 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. Katherine Dunham. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. The PATC teaching staff was made up of former members of Dunham's touring company, as well as local residents. At the recommendation of her mentor Melville Herskovits, PhB'20a Northwestern University anthropologist and African studies expertDunham's calling cards read both "dancer" and . Dana McBroom-Manno still teaches Dunham Technique in New York City and is a Master of Dunham Technique. 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.
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