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Transforming Anthropology 20 (2012): 159168. 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. Leverne Backstrom, president of the board of the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, still does. From the solar system to the world economy to educational games, Fact Monster has the info kids are seeking. Katherine Dunham introduced African and Caribbean rhythms to modern dance. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. 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. ", Black writer Arthur Todd described her as "one of our national treasures". Born in 1909 during the turn of the century Victorian era in the small town of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, she became one of the first dance anthropologists, started the first internationally-touring pre-dominantly black dance company . 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. [14] Redfield, Herskovits, and Sapir's contributions to cultural anthropology, exposed Dunham to topics and ideas that inspired her creatively and professionally. Fighting, Alive, Have Faith. After he became her artistic collaborator, they became romantically involved. Last Name Dunham #5. 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. Search input Search submit button. Additionally, she worked closely with Vera Mirova who specialized in "Oriental" dance. 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. Her the best movie is Casbah. The Katherine Dunham Company toured throughout North America in the mid-1940s, performing as well in the racially segregated South. Two years later she formed an all-Black company, which began touring extensively by 1943. for teaching dance that is still la'ag'ya , Shange , Veraruzana, nanigo. She expressed a hope that time and the "war for tolerance and democracy" (this was during World War II) would bring a change. 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. 2 (2012): 159168. 6 Katherine Dunham facts. Katherine Dunham Facts that are Fun!!! Katherine Dunham. 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. It opened in Chicago in 1933, with a black cast and with Page dancing the title role. Katherine Dunham was a rebel among rebels. A dance choreographer. Her work inspired many. Katherine Dunham was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, author, scholar, anthropologist and Civil Rights activist. The impresario Sol Hurok, manager of Dunham's troupe for a time, once had Ms. Dunham's legs insured for $250,000. [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. [3] She created many all-black dance groups. He continued as her artistic collaborator until his death in 1986. 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. 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. 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. Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. Fun Facts. Chin, Elizabeth. [13] Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance. The 1940s and 1950s saw the successors to the pioneers, give rise to such new stylistic variations through the work of artistic giants such as Jos Limn and Merce Cunningham. She was instrumental in getting respect for Black dancers on the concert dance stage and directed the first self-supported Black dance company. Katherine Dunham, a world-renowned dancer and choreographer, had big plans for East St. Louis in 1977. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Keep reading for more such interesting quotes at Kidadl!) ", "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. She was born on June 22, 1909 in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a small . [60], However, this decision did not keep her from engaging with and highly influencing the discipline for the rest of her life and beyond. [52], On May 21, 2006, Dunham died in her sleep from natural causes in New York City. At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. Most Popular #73650. ", 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.". 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. Here are some interesting facts about Alvin Ailey for you: Facts about Alvin Ailey 1: the popular modern dance Dana McBroom-Manno still teaches Dunham Technique in New York City and is a Master of Dunham Technique. [41] The State Department was dismayed by the negative view of American society that the ballet presented to foreign audiences. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . After this well-received performance in 1931, the group was disbanded. These experiences provided ample material for the numerous books, articles and short stories Dunham authored. Video footage of Dunham technique classes show a strong emphasis on anatomical alignment, breath, and fluidity. Receiving a post graduate academic fellowship, she went to the Caribbean to study the African diaspora, ethnography and local dance. 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. [37] One historian noted that "during the course of the tour, Dunham and the troupe had recurrent problems with racial discrimination, leading her to a posture of militancy which was to characterize her subsequent career."[38]. Example. - Pic Credit: Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Question 2. 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). She was likely named after Catherine of Aragon. During her studies, Dunham attended a lecture on anthropology, where she was introduced to the concept of dance as a cultural symbol. Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy." Katherine Mary Dunham was born in Chicago in 1909. Katherine Dunham was an American dancer and choreographer, credited to have brought the influence of Africa and the Caribbean into American dance . In 1928, while still an undergraduate, Dunham began to study ballet with Ludmilla Speranzeva, a Russian dancer who had settled in Chicago, after having come to the United States with the Franco-Russian vaudeville troupe Le Thtre de la Chauve-Souris, directed by impresario Nikita Balieff. They were stranded without money because of bad management by their impresario. With choreography characterized by exotic sexuality, both became signature works in the Dunham repertory. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. 30 seconds. 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. Birth State: Alabama. Radcliffe-Brown, Fred Eggan, and many others that she met in and around the University of Chicago. Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham. Pas de Deux from "L'Ag'Ya". Born in Glen Ellyn, IL #6. Dunham's mother, Fanny June Dunham (ne Taylor), who was of mixed French-Canadian and Native American heritage. She is a celebrity dancer. [54] Her dance education, while offering cultural resources for dealing with the consequences and realities of living in a racist environment, also brought about feelings of hope and dignity for inspiring her students to contribute positively to their own communities, and spreading essential cultural and spiritual capital within the U.S.[54], Just like her colleague Zora Neale Hurston, Dunham's anthropology inspired the blurring of lines between creative disciplines and anthropology. In the mid-1930s she conducted anthropological research on dance and incorporated her findings into her choreography, blending the rhythms and movements of . Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City, became prominent in the field of modern dance. The schools she created helped train such notables as Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins in the "Dunham technique." Death . 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. The company returned to New York. It closed after only 38 performances. Years later, after extensive studies and initiations in Haiti,[21] she became a mambo in the Vodun religion. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th . Genres Novels. One recurring theme that I really . In recognition of her stance, President Aristide later awarded her a medal of Haiti's highest honor. for the developing one of the the world performed many of her. Corrections? She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance." Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. After Mexico, Dunham began touring in Europe, where she was an immediate sensation. She lectured every summer until her death at annual Masters' Seminars in St. Louis, which attracted dance students from around the world. [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. Throughout her distinguished career, Dunham earned numerous honorary doctorates, awards and honors. Luminaries like Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey and Katherine Dunham began to shape and define what this new genre of dance would be. (Below are 10 Katherine Dunham quotes on positivity. According to the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, Dunham never thought she'd have a career in dance, although she did study with ballerina and choreographer Ruth Page, among others. In this post, she choreographed the Chicago production of Run Li'l Chil'lun, performed at the Goodman Theater. Dunham was exposed to sacred ritual dances performed by people on the islands of Haiti and Jamaica. 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. Together, they produced the first version of her dance composition L'Ag'Ya, which premiered on January 27, 1938, as a part of the Federal Theater Project in Chicago. Katherine Dunham, was published in a limited, numbered edition of 130 copies by the Institute for the Study of Social Change. Dunham was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, boycotting segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination. She was the first American dancer to present indigenous forms on a concert stage, the first to sustain a black dance company. She created and performed in works for stage, clubs, and Hollywood films; she started a school and a technique that continue to flourish; she fought unstintingly for racial justice. Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Lloyd Warner and Bronisaw Malinowski. Dunham was active in human rights causes, and in 1992 she staged a 47-day hunger strike to highlight the plight of Haitian refugees. Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. 1. 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. [50] Both Dunham and the prince denied the suggestion. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. 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. Birth City: Decatur. Please scroll down to enjoy more supporting materials. She also danced professionally, owned a dance company, and operated a dance studio. "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' Among Dunham's closest friends and colleagues was Julie Robinson, formerly a performer with the Katherine Dunham Company, and her husband, singer and later political activist Harry Belafonte. The PATC teaching staff was made up of former members of Dunham's touring company, as well as local residents. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe.