2023 The HistoryMakers. In 2000 she was named one of the first one hundred of "America's Irreplaceable Dance Treasures" by the Dance Heritage Coalition. Her fieldwork inspired her innovative interpretations of dance in the Caribbean, South America, and Africa. 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. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology through African American Dance Pedagogy." As a dancer and choreographer, Katherine Dunham (1910-2002) wowed audiences in the 1930s and 1940s when she combined classical ballet with African rhythms to create an exciting new dance style. Educate, entertain, and engage with Factmonster. 2 (2020): 259271. 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. Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) is revered as one of the great pillars of American dance history. Corrections? "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.". A actor. Dancer, choreographer, composer and songwriter, educated at the University of Chicago. All You Need to Know About Dunham Technique. 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. Facts About Katherine Dunham. [3] Dunham was an innovator in African-American modern dance as well as a leader in the field of dance anthropology, or ethnochoreology. 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. 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". Her work helped send astronauts to the . Although Dunham was offered another grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to pursue her academic studies, she chose dance. Anthropology News 33, no. In 2000 Katherine Dunham was named America's irreplaceable Dance Treasure. Dunham, Katherine dnm . "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of Josephine Baker, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Dunham". Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . 3 (1992): 24. Also Known For : . 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. "Katherine Dunham: Decolonizing Anthropology Through African American Dance Pedagogy. Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. [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. Tropics (choreographed 1937) and Le Jazz Hot (1938) were among the earliest of many works based on her research. Although it was well received by the audience, local censors feared that the revealing costumes and provocative dances might compromise public morals. In this post, she choreographed the Chicago production of Run Li'l Chil'lun, performed at the Goodman Theater. Born in 1909 #28. A dance choreographer. She is known for her many innovations, one of her most known . "The Case for Letting Anthropology Burn: Sociocultural Anthropology in 2019." Jeff Dunham hails from Dallas, Texas. Harrison, Faye V. "Decolonizing Anthropology Moving Further Toward and Anthropology for Liberation." She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black 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. Best Known For: Mae C. Jemison is the . Her alumni included many future celebrities, such as Eartha Kitt. April 30, 2019. teaches us about the impact Katherine Dunham left on the dance community & on the world. Intrigued by this theory, Dunham began to study African roots of dance and, in 1935, she traveled to the Caribbean for field research. Dunham passed away on Sunday, May 21, 2006 at the age of 96. Katherine Dunham introduced African and Caribbean rhythms to modern dance. 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. There she met John Pratt, an artist and designer and they got married in 1941 until his death in 1986. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. 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. VV A. Clark and Sara E. Johnson, editors, Joliet Central High School Yearbook, 1928. She also choreographed and appeared in Broadway musicals, operas and the film Cabin in the Sky. Katherine Dunham PhB'36. [13], Dunham officially joined the department in 1929 as an anthropology major,[13] while studying dances of the African diaspora. She did not complete the other requirements for that degree, however, as she realized that her professional calling was performance and choreography. Katherine Dunham. Her many original works include Lagya, Shango and Bal Negre. The highly respected Dance magazine did a feature cover story on Dunham in August 2000 entitled "One-Woman Revolution". The company soon embarked on a tour of venues in South America, Europe, and North Africa. Katherine Dunham always had an interest in dance and anthropology so her main goal in life was to combine them. In 1986 the American Anthropological Association gave her a Distinguished Service Award. Died On : May 21, 2006. "Katherine Dunham's Dance as Public Anthropology. 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. She taught dance lessons to help pay for her education at the University of Chicago. informed by new methods of america's most highly regarded. June 22 Dancer #4. 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. As a result, Dunham would later experience some diplomatic "difficulties" on her tours. 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 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. This won international acclaim and is now taught as a modern dance style in many dance schools. Early in 1947 Dunham choreographed the musical play Windy City, which premiered at the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. for the developing one of the the world performed many of her. Transforming Anthropology 20, no. You dance because you have to. 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." 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. However, after her father remarried, Albert Sr. and his new wife, Annette Poindexter Dunham, took in Katherine and her brother. Pas de Deux from "L'Ag'Ya". 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. 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. 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. 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. : Writings by and About Katherine Dunham. 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. The company returned to New York. [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. 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. Our site is COPPA and kidSAFE-certified, so you can rest assured it's a safe place for kids . 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 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. 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. In 1963, Dunham became the first African-American to choreograph for the Metropolitan Opera. The PATC teaching staff was made up of former members of Dunham's touring company, as well as local residents. [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. Schools inspired by it were later opened in Stockholm, Paris, and Rome by dancers who had been trained by Dunham. 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. [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]. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. Katherine Dunham (born June 22, 1909) [1] was an American dancer, choreographer, and anthropologist [1]. "[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. She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. Dunham's mother, Fanny June Dunham (ne Taylor), who was of mixed French-Canadian and Native American heritage. Time reported that, "she went on a 47-day hunger strike to protest the U.S.'s forced repatriation of Haitian refugees. 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. "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." Katherine Dunham in 1956. Video. 1910-2006. [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. 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 . After noticing that Katherine enjoyed working and socializing with people, her brother suggested that she study Anthropology. 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. Katherine Dunham, it includes photographs highlighting the many dimensions of Dunham's life and work. Through her ballet teachers, she was also exposed to Spanish, East Indian, Javanese, and Balinese dance forms.[23]. When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. All rights reserved.
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