A carriage house on the grounds is to . Katherine Dunham was born on the 22nd of June, 1909 in Chicago before she was taken by her parents to their hometown at Glen Ellyn in Illinois. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) is revered as one of the great pillars of American dance history. In the summer of 1941, after the national tour of Cabin in the Sky ended, they went to Mexico, where inter-racial marriages were less controversial than in the United States, and engaged in a commitment ceremony on 20 July, which thereafter they gave as the date of their wedding. In 1963, Dunham became the first African-American to choreograph for the Metropolitan Opera. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." Born in 1512 to Sir Thomas Parr, lord of the manor of Kendal in Westmorland, and Maud Green, an heiress and courtier, Catherine belonged to a family of substantial influence in the north. After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. [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. [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]. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) brought African dance aesthetics to the United States, forever influencing modern and jazz dance. 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. 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. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. [14] For example, she was highly influenced both by Sapir's viewpoint on culture being made up of rituals, beliefs, customs and artforms, and by Herkovits' and Redfield's studies highlighting links between African and African American cultural expression. 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. [ ] Katherine Dunham was born on June 22, 1909 (age 96) in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, United States. In the 1970s, scholars of Anthropology such as Dell Hymes and William S. Willis began to discuss Anthropology's participation in scientific colonialism. One example of this was studying how dance manifests within Haitian Vodou. April 30, 2019. Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. [12] Back in the United States she formed an all-black dance troupe, which in 1940 performed her Tropics and Le Jazz . When she was not performing, Dunham and Pratt often visited Haiti for extended stays. However, after her father remarried, Albert Sr. and his new wife, Annette Poindexter Dunham, took in Katherine and her brother. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . She wanted to know not only how people danced but why they dance. Name: Mae C. Jemison. In Boston, then a bastion of conservatism, the show was banned in 1944 after only one performance. Choreographer. 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. [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. Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. Her father, Albert Millard Dunham, was a descendant of slaves from West Africa and Madagascar. Genres Novels. ", Black writer Arthur Todd described her as "one of our national treasures". However, fully aware of her passion for both dance performance, as well as anthropological research, she felt she had to choose between the two. However, it has now became a common practice within the discipline. As a student, she studied under anthropologists such as A.R. Jobson, Ryan Cecil. [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. theatrical designers john pratt. Anna Kisselgoff, a dance critic for The New York Times, called Dunham "a major pioneer in Black theatrical dance ahead of her time." 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. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. 2 (2012): 159168. Dunham accepted a position at Southern Illinois University in East St. Louis in the 1960s. Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. 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." Othella Dallas, 93, still teaches Katherine Dunham technique, which she learned from Dunham herself. Based on this success, the entire company was engaged for the 1940 Broadway production Cabin in the Sky, staged by George Balanchine and starring Ethel Waters. A key reason for this choice was because she knew that through dance, her work would be able to be accessed by a wider array of audiences; more so than if she continued to limit her work within academia. Barrelhouse. 1. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 May 21, 2006)[1] was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. The living Dunham tradition has persisted. American dancer and choreographer (19092006). [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. 52 Copy quote. Years later, after extensive studies and initiations in Haiti,[21] she became a mambo in the Vodun religion. A fictional work based on her African experiences, Kasamance: A Fantasy, was published in 1974. [3] She created many all-black dance groups. It was not a success, closing after only eight performances. Photo provided by Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Morris Library Special Collections Research Center. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York. Using some ballet vernacular, Dunham incorporates these principles into a set of class exercises she labeled as "processions". This was followed by television spectaculars filmed in London, Buenos Aires, Toronto, Sydney, and Mexico City. The Katherine Dunham Museum is located at 1005 Pennsylvania Avenue, East St. Louis, Illinois. [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. Dunham created many all-black dance groups. . As a result, Dunham would later experience some diplomatic "difficulties" on her tours. She expressed a hope that time and the "war for tolerance and democracy" (this was during World War II) would bring a change. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. Childhood & Early Life. The committee voted unanimously to award $2,400 (more than $40,000 in today's money) to support her fieldwork in the Caribbean. Her legacy was far-reaching, both in dance and her cultural and social work. As a teenager, she won a scholarship to the Dunham school and later became a dancer with the company, before beginning her successful singing career. 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. Katherine Dunham on dance anthropology. Birth City: Decatur. One of her fellow professors, with whom she collaborated, was architect Buckminster Fuller. Katherine Dunham Facts that are Fun!!! Tune in & learn about the inception of. Classes are led by Ruby Streate, director of dance and education and artistic director of the Katherine Dunham Children's Workshop. She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. Birthday : June 22, 1909. ((Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum Photograph and Prints collection. Katherine Dunham died on May 21 2006. 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. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy. Occupation(s): [21] This style of participant observation research was not yet common within the discipline of anthropology. "[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. Kraut, Anthea. Long, Richard A, and Joe Nash. He has released six stand-up specials and one album of Christmas songs. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. 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". The following year, she moved to East St. Louis, where she opened the Performing Arts Training Center to help the underserved community. Dunham technique is a codified dance training technique developed by Katherine Dunham in the mid 20th century. Dunham early became interested in dance. In 1978, an anthology of writings by and about her, also entitled Kaiso! Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. Video. Dunham is credited with introducing international audiences to African aesthetics and establishing African dance as a true art form. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small . [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. 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. 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. Dancer Born in Illinois #12. "[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. ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . Katherine Dunham introduced African and Caribbean rhythms to modern dance. 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. At the age of 82, Dunham went on a hunger strike in . Birth Year: 1956. The program she created runs to this day at the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, revolutionizing lives with dance and culture. 2023 The HistoryMakers. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) By Halifu Osumare Katherine Dunham was a world famous dancer, choreographer, author, anthropologist, social activist, and humanitarian. She returned to graduate school and submitted a master's thesis to the anthropology faculty. ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. She wrote that he "opened the floodgates of anthropology" for her. There, her father ran a dry-cleaning business.[8]. She . Dancer, choreographer, composer and songwriter, educated at the University of Chicago. But Dunham, who was Black and held a doctorate in anthropology, had hoped to spur a "cultural awakening on the East Side," she told . At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. 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. 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 decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. [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]. 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). [13] Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance. 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. Katherine Dunham was a rebel among rebels. She also appeared in the Broadway musicals "Bal . Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . 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. 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 did this for many reasons. [22] until hia death in the 1986. Dunham and Kitt collaborated again in the 1970s in an Equity Production of the musical Peg, based on the Irish play, Peg O' My Heart. [1] Dunham also created the Dunham Technique. Corrections? She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. 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. She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . Kantherine Dunham passed away of natural causes on May 21, 2006, one month before her 97th birthday. 6 Katherine Dunham facts. 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. It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. It was a venue for Dunham to teach young black dancers about their African heritage. As Wendy Perron wrote, "Jazz dance, 'fusion,' and the search for our cultural identity all have their antecedents in Dunham's work as a dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist. informed by new methods of america's most highly regarded. 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. used throughout the world choros, rite de passage, los Idies, and. She also developed the Dunham Technique, a method of movement to support her dance works. 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. Fun Facts. Charm Dance from "L'Ag'Ya". [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. At the recommendation of her mentor Melville Herskovits, PhB'20a Northwestern University anthropologist and African studies expertDunham's calling cards read both "dancer" and . This meant neither of the children were able to settle into a home for a few years. Birth Country: United States. She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. [14] Redfield, Herskovits, and Sapir's contributions to cultural anthropology, exposed Dunham to topics and ideas that inspired her creatively and professionally. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. She also created several other works of choreography, including The Emperor Jones (a response to the play by Eugene O'Neill) and Barrelhouse. (Below are 10 Katherine Dunham quotes on positivity. Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. 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. Chin, Elizabeth. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Here are some interesting facts about Alvin Ailey for you: Facts about Alvin Ailey 1: the popular modern dance ", Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:48. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. Her work helped send astronauts to the . She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. - Pic Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Kaiso is an Afro-Caribbean term denoting praise. Deren is now considered to be a pioneer of independent American filmmaking. 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. Fighting, Alive, Have Faith. . 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. [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. Born in 1909 #28. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. 1. In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. Best Known For: Mae C. Jemison is the . "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.". 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 He lived on 5 January 1931 and passed away on 1 December 1989. 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. While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. In 1947 it was expanded and granted a charter as the Katherine Dunham School of Cultural Arts. Anthropology News 33, no. 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. Died: May 21, 2006. The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. 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 . [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. 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 . 8 Katherine Dunham facts. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Example. Her work inspired many. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. 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]. Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. 1910-2006. Interesting facts. Born in Glen Ellyn, IL #6. The restructuring of heavy industry had caused the loss of many working-class jobs, and unemployment was high in the city. Dana McBroom-Manno still teaches Dunham Technique in New York City and is a Master of Dunham Technique. [3] Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. 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. Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. She built her own dance empire and was hailed as the queen of black dance. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. Katherine Dunham Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. Such visitors included ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, novelist and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston, Robert Redfield, Bronisaw Malinowski, A.R. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th . Dunham is still taught at widely recognized dance institutions such as The American Dance Festival and The Ailey School. 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. Katherine Dunham got an early bachelor's degree in anthropology as a student at the University of Chicago. Fun facts. Dunham and her company appeared in the Hollywood movie Casbah (1948) with Tony Martin, Yvonne De Carlo, and Peter Lorre, and in the Italian film Botta e Risposta, produced by Dino de Laurentiis. Her choreography and performances made use of a concept within Dance Anthropology called "research-to-performance". [2] Most of Dunham's works previewed many questions essential to anthropology's postmodern turn, such as critiquing understandings of modernity, interpretation, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. Harrison, Faye V. "Decolonizing Anthropology Moving Further Toward and Anthropology for Liberation." 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 choreography characterized by exotic sexuality, both became signature works in the Dunham repertory. 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. The Dunham troupe toured for two decades, stirring audiences around the globe with their dynamic and highly theatrical performances. 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. Tropics (choreographed 1937) and Le Jazz Hot (1938) were among the earliest of many works based on her research.