katherine dunham fun facts

Based on her research in Martinique, this three-part performance integrated elements of a Martinique fighting dance into American ballet. Dunham was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, boycotting segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination. [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. Facts about Alvin Ailey talk about the famous African-American activist and choreographer. Dancer. As a student, she studied under anthropologists such as A.R. In 1976, Dunham was guest artist-in-residence and lecturer for Afro-American studies at the University of California, Berkeley. The highly respected Dance magazine did a feature cover story on Dunham in August 2000 entitled "One-Woman Revolution". Katherine Dunham. Check out this biography to know about his childhood, family life, achievements and fun facts about him. This meant neither of the children were able to settle into a home for a few years. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190264871.003.0001, "Dunham Technique: Fall and recovery with body roll", "Katherine Dunham on need for Dunham Technique", "The Negro Problem in a Class Society: 19511960 Brazil", "Katherine Dunham, Dance Icon, Dies at 96", "Candace Award Recipients 19821990, Page 1", "Katherine the Great: 2004 Lifetime Achievement Awardee Katherine Dunham", Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology, Katherine Dunham on her anthropological films, Guide to the Photograph Collection on Katherine Dunham, Katherine Dunham's oral history video excerpts, "Katherine Dunham on Overcoming 1940s Racism", Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, Recalling Choreographer and Activist Dunham, "How Katherine Dunham Revealed Black Dance to the World", Katherine Dunham, Dance Pioneer, Dies at 96, "On Stage and Backstage withTalented Katherine Dunham, Master Dance Designer", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katherine_Dunham&oldid=1139015494, American people of French-Canadian descent, 20th-century African-American politicians, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, In 1971 she received the Heritage Award from the, In 1983 she was a recipient of one of the highest artistic awards in the United States, the. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. Dunham Company member Dana McBroom-Manno was selected as a featured artist in the show, which played on the Music Fair Circuit. [6][10] While still a high school student, she opened a private dance school for young black children. Dunham, Katherine dnm . While in Haiti, Dunham investigated Vodun rituals and made extensive research notes, particularly on the dance movements of the participants. 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. She wrote that he "opened the floodgates of anthropology" for her. The schools she created helped train such notables as Alvin Ailey and Jerome Robbins in the "Dunham technique." Death . Initially scheduled for a single performance, the show was so popular that the troupe repeated it for another ten Sundays. 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. The Dunham troupe toured for two decades, stirring audiences around the globe with their dynamic and highly theatrical performances. In the 1930s, she did fieldwork in the Caribbean and infused her choreography with the cultures . She decided to live for a year in relative isolation in Kyoto, Japan, where she worked on writing memoirs of her youth. Childhood & Early Life. 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. 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. Died On : May 21, 2006. The program she created runs to this day at the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, revolutionizing lives with dance and culture. The Katherine Dunham Fund buys and adapts for use as a museum an English Regency-style townhouse on Pennsylvania Avenue at Tenth Street in East Saint Louis. 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. Additionally, she was named one of the most influential African American anthropologists. 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. 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. After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. Katherine Dunham Biography, Life, Interesting Facts. 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. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. 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. 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. However, fully aware of her passion for both dance performance, as well as anthropological research, she felt she had to choose between the two. 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. In particular, Dunham is a model for the artist as activist. Episode 5 of Break the FACTS! One recurring theme that I really . Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. Katherine Dunham in 1956. The group performed Dunham's Negro Rhapsody at the Chicago Beaux Arts Ball. Dunham accepted a position at Southern Illinois University in East St. Louis in the 1960s. 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. She lectured every summer until her death at annual Masters' Seminars in St. Louis, which attracted dance students from around the world. In 2004 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from, In 2005, she was awarded "Outstanding Leadership in Dance Research" by the. 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. Upon returning to Chicago, the company performed at the Goodman Theater and at the Abraham Lincoln Center. Known for her many innovations, Dunham developed a dance pedagogy, later named the Dunham Technique, a style of movement and exercises based in traditional African dances, to support her choreography. With choreography characterized by exotic sexuality, both became signature works in the Dunham repertory. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. First Name Katherine #37. Occupation(s): 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. There, her father ran a dry-cleaning business.[8]. One of the most significant dancers, artists, and anthropologic figures of the 20th century, Katherine Dunham defied racial and gender boundaries during a . ", Examples include: The Ballet in film "Stormy Weather" (Stone 1943) and "Mambo" (Rossen 1954). 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. "[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. A carriage house on the grounds is to . Katherine Dunham was an American dancer and choreographer, credited to have brought the influence of Africa and the Caribbean into American dance . 2 (2020): 259271. Omissions? forming a powerful personal. 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. Others who attended her school included James Dean, Gregory Peck, Jose Ferrer, Jennifer Jones, Shelley Winters, Sidney Poitier, Shirley MacLaine and Warren Beatty. Although Dunham was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance. Johnson 's gift for numbers allowed her to accelerate through her education. Never completing her required coursework for her graduate degree, she departed for Broadway and Hollywood. "My job", she said, "is to create a useful legacy. Marlon Brando frequently dropped in to play the bongo drums, and jazz musician Charles Mingus held regular jam sessions with the drummers. She arranged a fundraising cabaret for a Methodist Church, where she did her first public performance when she was 15 years old. In 1978, an anthology of writings by and about her, also entitled Kaiso! 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. She did this for many reasons. He had been a promising philosophy professor at Howard University and a protg of Alfred North Whitehead. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Katherine-Dunham, The Kennedy Center - Biography of Katherine Dunham, Katherine Dunham - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). New York City, U.S. 6 Katherine Dunham facts. Dunham passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at the age of 96. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. Tropics (choreographed 1937) and Le Jazz Hot (1938) were among the earliest of many works based on her research. Dunham was exposed to sacred ritual dances performed by people on the islands of Haiti and Jamaica. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . Alvin Ailey, who stated that he first became interested in dance as a professional career after having seen a performance of the Katherine Dunham Company as a young teenager of 14 in Los Angeles, called the Dunham Technique "the closest thing to a unified Afro-American dance existing.". This led to a custody battle over Katherine and her brother, brought on by their maternal relatives. Facts About Katherine Dunham. It closed after only 38 performances. The following year, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson nominated Dunham to be technical cultural advisera sort of cultural ambassadorto the government of Senegal in West Africa. Nationality. 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. When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. 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. They had particular success in Denmark and France. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. Katherine Dunham, a world-renowned dancer and choreographer, had big plans for East St. Louis in 1977. 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. Last Name Dunham #5. "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." Video footage of Dunham technique classes show a strong emphasis on anatomical alignment, breath, and fluidity. In 1986 the American Anthropological Association gave her a Distinguished Service Award. 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. By drawing on a vast, never-utilized trove of archival materials along with oral histories, choreographic analysis, and embodied research, Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora offers new insight about how this remarkable woman built political solidarity through the arts. Katherine Dunham, it includes photographs highlighting the many dimensions of Dunham's life and work. American Anthropologist 122, no. 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. Katherine Dunham, the dancer, choreographer, teacher and anthropologist whose pioneering work introduced much of the black heritage in dance to the stage, died Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She also choreographed and appeared in Broadway musicals, operas and the film Cabin in the Sky. 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. In the 1970s, scholars of Anthropology such as Dell Hymes and William S. Willis began to discuss Anthropology's participation in scientific colonialism. She is best known for bringing African and Caribbean dance styles to the US [1]. Katherine Mary Dunham (also known as Kaye Dunn, June 22, 1909 - May 21, 2006) was an American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, and social activist. Additionally, she worked closely with Vera Mirova who specialized in "Oriental" dance. "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.". Regarding her impact and effect he wrote: "The rise of American Negro dance commenced when Katherine Dunham and her company skyrocketed into the Windsor Theater in New York, from Chicago in 1940, and made an indelible stamp on the dance world Miss Dunham opened the doors that made possible the rapid upswing of this dance for the present generation." There, he ran a dry cleaning business in a place mostly occupied by white people. She did not complete the other requirements for that degree, however, as she realized that her professional calling was performance and choreography. Cruz Banks, Ojeya. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers in African-American and European theater of the 20th . He was the founder of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. Dunham technique is also inviting to the influence of cultural movement languages outside of dance including karate and capoeira.[36]. [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. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . Having completed her undergraduate work at the University of Chicago and decided to pursue a performing career rather than academic studies, Dunham revived her dance ensemble. 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. On one of these visits, during the late 1940s, she purchased a large property of more than seven hectares (approximately 17.3 acres) in the Carrefours suburban area of Port-au-Prince, known as Habitation Leclerc. It next moved to the West Coast for an extended run of performances there. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. She also choreographed and starred in dance sequences in such films as Carnival of Rhythm (1942), Stormy Weather (1943), and Casbah (1947). It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. While a student at the University of Chicago, she formed a dance group that performed in concert at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1934 and with the Chicago Civic Opera company in 193536. Smith, Linda Tuhiwai. However, it has now became a common practice within the discipline. 30 seconds. Also Known For : . 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. 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. Alvin Ailey later produced a tribute for her in 198788 at Carnegie Hall with his American Dance Theater, entitled The Magic of Katherine Dunham. At the height of her career in the 1940s and 1950s, Dunham was renowned throughout Europe and Latin America and was widely popular in the United States. "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' Dunham became interested in both writing and dance at a young age. In the mid-1930s she conducted anthropological research on dance and incorporated her findings into her choreography, blending the rhythms and movements of . VV A. Clark and Sara E. Johnson, editors, Joliet Central High School Yearbook, 1928. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy. At this time Dunham first became associated with designer John Pratt, whom she later married. He has released six stand-up specials and one album of Christmas songs. 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. 2 (2012): 159168. The result of this trip was Dunham's Master's thesis entitled "The Dances of Haiti". In 1950, Sol Hurok presented Katherine Dunham and Her Company in a dance revue at the Broadway Theater in New York, with a program composed of some of Dunham's best works. 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. Katherine Dunham: The Artist as Activist During World War II. The program included courses in dance, drama, performing arts, applied skills, humanities, cultural studies, and Caribbean research. Choreographer. Katherine Dunham was an African-American dancer and choreographer, producer, author, scholar, anthropologist and Civil Rights activist. Harrison, Faye V. "Decolonizing Anthropology Moving Further Toward and Anthropology for Liberation." Katherine Dunham facts for kids. Katherine Dunham Facts that are Fun!!! Birth State: Alabama. The show created a minor controversy in the press. Her choreography and performances made use of a concept within Dance Anthropology called "research-to-performance". [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. (She later took a Ph.D. in anthropology.) Some Facts. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. 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. 1. [13] Under their tutelage, she showed great promise in her ethnographic studies of dance. 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. most important pedagogues original work which includes :Batuada. Dancer, anthropologist, social worker, activist, author. 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. He needn't have bothered. Transforming Anthropology 20 (2012): 159168. ..American Anthropologist.. 112, no. 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." 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 . Katherine Dunham Quotes On Positivity. Dunham's dance career first began in Chicago when she joined the Little Theater Company of Harper Avenue. [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. Banks, Ojeya Cruz. She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. With Dunham in the sultry role of temptress Georgia Brown, the show ran for 20 weeks in New York. Born Katherine Coleman in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia . Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Lloyd Warner and Bronisaw Malinowski. Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. ", Richard Buckle, ballet historian and critic, wrote: "Her company of magnificent dancers and musicians met with the success it has and that herself as explorer, thinker, inventor, organizer, and dancer should have reached a place in the estimation of the world, has done more than a million pamphlets could for the service of her people. Please scroll down to enjoy more supporting materials. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. 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. Encouraged by Speranzeva to focus on modern dance instead of ballet, Dunham opened her first dance school in 1933, calling it the Negro Dance Group. This was the beginning of more than 20 years during which Dunham performed with her company almost exclusively outside the United States. "The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn: Sociocultural Anthropology in 2019." Example. Dancer, choreographer, composer and songwriter, educated at the University of Chicago. It was not a success, closing after only eight performances. Each procession builds on the last and focuses on conditioning the body to prepare for specific exercises that come later. While trying to help the young people in the community, Dunham was arrested. On February 22, 2022, Selkirk will offer a unique, one-lot auction titled, Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Ephemera And Documents. The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. From the solar system to the world economy to educational games, Fact Monster has the info kids are seeking. The Katherine Dunham Company toured throughout North America in the mid-1940s, performing as well in the racially segregated South. The State Department regularly subsidized other less well-known groups, but it consistently refused to support her company (even when it was entertaining U.S. Army troops), although at the same time it did not hesitate to take credit for them as "unofficial artistic and cultural representatives". Childhood & Early Life. Best Known For: Mae C. Jemison is the . Video. April 30, 2019. London: Zed Books, 1999. Katherine Dunham died on May 21 2006. She also continued refining and teaching the Dunham Technique to transmit that knowledge to succeeding generations of dance students. 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. "[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. 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 is credited Her dance troupe in venues around. At an early age, Dunham became interested in dance. [21] This style of participant observation research was not yet common within the discipline of anthropology. ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . Alumnae include Eartha Kitt, Marlon Brando and Julie Belafonte. Charm Dance from "L'Ag'Ya". A continuation based on her experiences in Haiti, Island Possessed, was published in 1969. 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. 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. 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. [3] She created many all-black dance groups.

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