Transforming Anthropology 20, no. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. After he became her artistic collaborator, they became romantically involved. 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. 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. By 1957, Dunham was under severe personal strain, which was affecting her health. . In 1945, Dunham opened and directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. Died: May 21, 2006. Fun Facts. Kaiso is an Afro-Caribbean term denoting praise. Corrections? At the age of 82, Dunham went on a hunger strike in . This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. Katherine Dunham. [59] She ultimately chose to continue her career in dance without her master's degree in anthropology. In 19341936, Dunham performed as a guest artist with the ballet company of the Chicago Opera. For almost 30 years she maintained the Katherine Dunham Dance Company, the only self-supported American black dance troupe at that time. She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. 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. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. [5] She had an older brother, Albert Jr., with whom she had a close relationship. Dunham, Katherine dnm . "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy." 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. She did not complete the other requirements for that degree, however, as she realized that her professional calling was performance and choreography. Among her dancers selected were Marcia McBroom, Dana McBroom, Jean Kelly, and Jesse Oliver. Later Dunham established a second home in Senegal, and she occasionally returned there to scout for talented African musicians and dancers. The company returned to New York. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. "[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. Video. 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. In the mid-1930s she conducted anthropological research on dance and incorporated her findings into her choreography, blending the rhythms and movements of . 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. Dunham was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, boycotting segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student at the University of Chicago. Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. By Renata Sago. After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! 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. 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). 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. [13] Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance. 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]. Katherine Johnson graduated from college at age 18. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. 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. She also continued refining and teaching the Dunham Technique to transmit that knowledge to succeeding generations of dance students. In 2000 Katherine Dunham was named America's irreplaceable Dance Treasure. 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. But Dunham, who was Black and held a doctorate in anthropology, had hoped to spur a "cultural awakening on the East Side," she told . Katherine Mary Dunham (also known as Kaye Dunn, June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, and social activist. [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. Video. She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . However, fully aware of her passion for both dance performance, as well as anthropological research, she felt she had to choose between the two. [15] It was in a lecture by Redfield that she learned about the relationship between dance and culture, pointing out that Black Americans had retained much of their African heritage in dances. 288 pages, Hardcover. Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. [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]. She wanted to know not only how people danced but why they dance. There, her father ran a dry-cleaning business.[8]. The finale to the first act of this show was Shango, a staged interpretation of a Vodun ritual, which became a permanent part of the company's repertory. Childhood & Early Life. Dunham is still taught at widely recognized dance institutions such as The American Dance Festival and The Ailey School. Additionally, she worked closely with Vera Mirova who specialized in "Oriental" dance. Search input Search submit button. 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. In recognition of her stance, President Aristide later awarded her a medal of Haiti's highest honor. The family moved to Joliet, Illinois when her father remarried. "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.". Dunham created Rara Tonga and Woman with a Cigar at this time, which became well known. Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham, it includes photographs highlighting the many dimensions of Dunham's life and work. Omissions? In 1963, she became the first African American to choreograph for the Met since Hemsley Winfield set the dances for The Emperor Jones in 1933. 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. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. [15] He showed her the connection between dance and social life giving her the momentum to explore a new area of anthropology, which she later termed "Dance Anthropology". In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. 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. theatrical designers john pratt. Educate, entertain, and engage with Factmonster. Kantherine Dunham passed away of natural causes on May 21, 2006, one month before her 97th birthday. All You Need to Know About Dunham Technique. Fighting, Alive, Have Faith. She returned to graduate school and submitted a master's thesis to the anthropology faculty. 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 decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. Although Dunham was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance. Katherine was also an activist, author, educator, and anthropologist. In particular, Dunham is a model for the artist as activist. However, she did not seriously pursue a career in the profession until she was a student . Beautiful, Justice, Black. 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. As a result, Dunham would later experience some diplomatic "difficulties" on her tours. 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. In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. In my mind, it's the most fascinating thing in the world to learn".[19]. 30 seconds. for the developing one of the the world performed many of her. 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 . One example of this was studying how dance manifests within Haitian Vodou. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York. 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. The living Dunham tradition has persisted. "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". Katherine Dunham is the inventor of the Dunham technique and a renowned dancer and choreographer of African-American descent. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Named Marie-Christine Dunham Pratt, she was their only child. New York: Rizzoli, 1989. 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. The program she created runs to this day at the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, revolutionizing lives with dance and culture. Somewhat later, she assisted him, at considerable risk to her life, when he was persecuted for his progressive policies and sent in exile to Jamaica after a coup d'tat. Example. 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. [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. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . [50] Both Dunham and the prince denied the suggestion. Grow your vocab the fun way! 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. Her father was given a number of important positions at court . As celebrities, their voices can have a profound influence on popular culture. [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. 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. Subsequently, Dunham undertook various choreographic commissions at several venues in the United States and in Europe. She expressed a hope that time and the "war for tolerance and democracy" (this was during World War II) would bring a change. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. All rights reserved. Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. She also developed the Dunham Technique, a method of movement to support her dance works. 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. and creative team that lasted. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Katherine Dunham. Dancer. 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! [26] This work was never produced in Joplin's lifetime, but since the 1970s, it has been successfully produced in many venues. 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. Katherine Mary Dunham (June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, creator of the Dunham Technique, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. 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. Text:. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) brought African dance aesthetics to the United States, forever influencing modern and jazz dance. 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.