[8], Despite her choosing dance, Dunham often voiced recognition of her debt to the discipline: "without [anthropology] I don't know what I would have done.In anthropology, I learned how to feel about myself in relation to other people. (She later took a Ph.D. in anthropology.) Question 2. katherine dunham fun factsaiken county sc register of deeds katherine dunham fun facts 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. [59] She ultimately chose to continue her career in dance without her master's degree in anthropology. ", Kraut, Anthea, "Between Primitivism and Diaspora: The Dance Performances of, This page was last edited on 12 February 2023, at 22:48. As celebrities, their voices can have a profound influence on popular culture. In 1938 she joined the Federal Theatre Project in Chicago and composed a ballet, LAgYa, based on Caribbean dance. Dunham's background as an anthropologist gave the dances of the opera a new authenticity. 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. Fun Facts. Katherine Dunham, was mounted at the Women's Center on the campus. Many of her students, trained in her studios in Chicago and New York City, became prominent in the field of modern dance. The Black Tradition in American Modern Dance. Dunham is still taught at widely recognized dance institutions such as The American Dance Festival and The Ailey School. Katherine Dunham and her Haitian legacy - Dance Australia Katherine Dunham and John Pratt married in 1949 to adopt Marie-Christine, a French 14-month-old baby. The following year, she moved to East St. Louis, where she opened the Performing Arts Training Center to help the underserved community. The PATC teaching staff was made up of former members of Dunham's touring company, as well as local residents. Katherine Dunham Biography - Facts, Childhood, Family Life & Achievements Over her long career, she choreographed more than ninety individual dances. [54] Her legacy within Anthropology and Dance Anthropology continues to shine with each new day. 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. In Boston, then a bastion of conservatism, the show was banned in 1944 after only one performance. Dunham was always a formidable advocate for racial equality, boycotting segregated venues in the United States and using her performances to highlight discrimination. Interesting facts. ", Scholar of the arts Harold Cruse wrote in 1964: "Her early and lifelong search for meaning and artistic values for black people, as well as for all peoples, has motivated, created opportunities for, and launched careers for generations of young black artists Afro-American dance was usually in the avant-garde of modern dance Dunham's entire career spans the period of the emergence of Afro-American dance as a serious art. 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. A photographic exhibit honoring her achievements, entitled Kaiso! Katherine Dunham : Dance and the African Diaspora - Google Books Stormy Weather (1943 film) - Wikipedia 6 Katherine Dunham facts. movement and expression. 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. As this show continued its run at the Windsor Theater, Dunham booked her own company in the theater for a Sunday performance. The next year, after the US entered World War II, Dunham appeared in the Paramount musical film Star Spangled Rhythm (1942) in a specialty number, "Sharp as a Tack," with Eddie "Rochester" Anderson. Dunham had one of the most successful dance careers of the 20th century, and directed her own dance company for many years. All rights reserved. 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". American Anthropologist 122, no. He lived on 5 January 1931 and passed away on 1 December 1989. She wrote that he "opened the floodgates of anthropology" for her. Anthropology News 33, no. 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. 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. Born in 1909 #28. After he became her artistic collaborator, they became romantically involved. In 1921, a short story she wrote when she was 12 years old, called "Come Back to Arizona", was published in volume 2 of The Brownies' Book. [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. The critics acknowledged the historical research she did on dance in ancient Egypt, but they were not appreciative of her choreography as staged for this production.[25]. Dunham had been invited to stage a new number for the popular, long-running musical revue Pins and Needles 1940, produced by the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union. . 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. 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. [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. In the 1930s, she did fieldwork in the Caribbean and infused her choreography with the cultures . 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. After the 1968 riots following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Dunham encouraged gang members in the ghetto to come to the center to use drumming and dance to vent their frustrations. Her legacy was far-reaching, both in dance and her cultural and social work. She has been called the "matriarch and queen mother of black dance."[2]. You can't learn about dances until you learn about people. Katherine Dunham in a photograph from around 1945. By 1957, Dunham was under severe personal strain, which was affecting her health. Occupation(s): Educate, entertain, and engage with Factmonster. 1910-2006. The Katherine Dunham Museum is located at 1005 Pennsylvania Avenue, East St. Louis, Illinois. When you have faith in something, it's your reason to be alive and to fight for it. 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. 1. ZURICH Othella Dallas lay on the hardwood . As one of her biographers, Joyce Aschenbrenner, wrote: "anthropology became a life-way"[2] for Dunham. Katherine Dunham - Bio, Age, Wiki, Facts and Family - in4fp.com Dunham turned anthropology into artistry - University of Chicago News 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. . Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. Jobson, Ryan Cecil. ", Black writer Arthur Todd described her as "one of our national treasures". Radcliffe-Brown, Edward Sapir, Melville Herskovits, Lloyd Warner and Bronisaw Malinowski. [26] This work was never produced in Joplin's lifetime, but since the 1970s, it has been successfully produced in many venues. Her father was given a number of important positions at court . Katherine Dunham predated, pioneered, and demonstrated new ways of doing and envisioning Anthropology six decades ahead of the discipline. During her tenure, she secured funding for the Performing Arts Training Center, where she introduced a program designed to channel the energy of the communitys youth away from gangs and into dance. 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. However, fully aware of her passion for both dance performance, as well as anthropological research, she felt she had to choose between the two. One of the most important dance artists of the twentieth century, dancer and choreographer Katherine Dunham (1909-2006) created works that thrilled audiences the world over. But what set her work even further apart from Martha Graham and Jos Limn was her fusion of that foundation with Afro-Caribbean styles. "Her mastery of body movement was considered 'phenomenal.' New York City, U.S. She felt it was necessary to use the knowledge she gained in her research to acknowledge that Africanist esthetics are significant to the cultural equation in American dance. Pratt, who was white, shared Dunham's interests in African-Caribbean cultures and was happy to put his talents in her service. In 1935, Dunham received grants to conduct fieldwork in Trinidad, Jamaica, and Haiti to study Afro-Caribbean dance and other rituals. She died a month before her 97th birthday.[53]. It was considered one of the best learning centers of its type at the time. She expressed a hope that time and the "war for tolerance and democracy" (this was during World War II) would bring a change. Members of Dunham's last New York Company auditioned to become members of the Met Ballet Company. Died: May 21, 2006. VV A. Clark and Sara E. Johnson, editors, Joliet Central High School Yearbook, 1928. [6] After her mother died, her father left the children with their aunt Lulu on Chicago's South Side. 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. Example. Katherine Dunham - Dancing with History In 1945, Dunham opened and directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance and Theatre near Times Square in New York City. This was the beginning of more than 20 years during which Dunham performed with her company almost exclusively outside the United States. Q. Katherine Mary Dun ham was an African-American dancer, choreographer, author, educator, anthropologist, and social activist. theatrical designers john pratt. Mae C. Jemison: First African American Female Astronaut - Biography 4 (December 2010): 640642. [1] The Dunham Technique is still taught today. USA. Katherine Dunham. Katherine Dunham or the "Matriarch of - Medium [54] After recovering crucial dance epistemologies relevant to people of the African diaspora during her ethnographic research, she applied anthropological knowledge toward developing her own dance pedagogy (Dunham Technique) that worked to reconcile with the legacy of colonization and racism and correct sociocultural injustices. Upon returning to Chicago, the company performed at the Goodman Theater and at the Abraham Lincoln Center. During these years, the Dunham company appeared in some 33 countries in Europe, North Africa, South America, Australia, and East Asia. Her technique was "a way of life". The school was managed in Dunham's absence by Syvilla Fort, one of her dancers, and thrived for about 10 years. Fun Facts. From the solar system to the world economy to educational games, Fact Monster has the info kids are seeking. Katherine Dunham on dance anthropology. Her popular books are Island Possessed (1969), Touch of Innocence (1959), Dances of Haiti (1983), Kaiso! Birth Country: United States. 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 . 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. She was hailed for her smooth and fluent choreography and dominated a stage with what has been described as 'an unmitigating radiant force providing beauty with a feminine touch full of variety and nuance. Subsequently, Dunham undertook various choreographic commissions at several venues in the United States and in Europe. Katherine Dunham | Biography, Dance, Technique, Dance - Britannica Katherine Dunham on Break the FACTS! - YouTube The Met Ballet Company dancers studied Dunham Technique at Dunham's 42nd Street dance studio for the entire summer leading up to the season opening of Aida. Please scroll down to enjoy more supporting materials. As a student, she studied under anthropologists such as A.R. While in Haiti, she hasn't only studied Vodun rituals, but also participated and became a mambo, female high priest in the Vodun religion. 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. Katherine Dunham introduced African and Caribbean rhythms to modern dance. The result of this trip was Dunham's Master's thesis entitled "The Dances of Haiti". All You Need to Know About Dunham Technique - Dance Spirit Video. 5 Katherine Dunham facts - Katherine dunham 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. 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 . 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. Stormy Weather is a 1943 American musical film produced and released by 20th Century Fox, adapted by Frederick J. Jackson, Ted Koehler and H.S. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, . Short Biography. Katherine Dunham, it includes photographs highlighting the many dimensions of Dunham's life and work. On February 22, 2022, Selkirk will offer a unique, one-lot auction titled, Divine Technique: Katherine Dunham Ephemera And Documents. This led to a custody battle over Katherine and her brother, brought on by their maternal relatives. The first work, entitled A Touch of Innocence: Memoirs of Childhood, was published in 1959. 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. This meant neither of the children were able to settle into a home for a few years. She also appeared in the Broadway musicals "Bal . He needn't have bothered. About Miss Dunham - Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities ((Photographer unknown, Courtesy of Missouri History Museum Photograph and Prints collection. "My job", she said, "is to create a useful legacy. Othella Dallas, 93, still teaches Katherine Dunham technique, which she learned from Dunham herself. In 1963 Dunham was commissioned to choreograph Aida at New York's Metropolitan Opera Company, with Leontyne Price in the title role. Her the best movie is Casbah. Katherine Dunham Bio - Institute for Dunham Technique Certification 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. [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. 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. 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. Leverne Backstrom, president of the board of the Katherine Dunham Centers for Arts and Humanities, still does. [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 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. and creative team that lasted. 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. Katherine Dunham Biography for Kids - lottie.com Fun facts about Julie Belafonte brought to you by IDTC! Text: Julie [11], During her time in Chicago, Dunham enjoyed holding social gatherings and inviting visitors to her apartment. Numerous scholars describe Dunham as pivotal to the fields of Dance Education, Applied Anthropology, Humanistic Anthropology, African Diasporic Anthropology and Liberatory Anthropology. Katherine Dunham | Encyclopedia.com 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. Video. 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. The recipient of numerous awards, Dunham received a Kennedy Center Honor in 1983 and the National Medal of Arts in 1989. 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. Dunham's last appearance on Broadway was in 1962 in Bamboche!, which included a few former Dunham dancers in the cast and a contingent of dancers and drummers from the Royal Troupe of Morocco. At the recommendation of her mentor Melville Herskovits, PhB'20a Northwestern University anthropologist and African studies expertDunham's calling cards read both "dancer" and . Pas de Deux from "L'Ag'Ya". 7 Katherine Dunham facts. Dunham, Katherine | FactMonster Through much study and time, she eventually became one of the founders of the field of dance anthropology. In September 1943, under the management of the impresario Sol Hurok, her troupe opened in Tropical Review at the Martin Beck Theater. There, he ran a dry cleaning business in a place mostly occupied by white people. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200003840/. Chin, Elizabeth. 1. Understanding that the fact was due to racial discrimination, she made sure the incident was publicized. Katherine Dunham, 1909-2006 - WWP Fighting for Katherine Dunham's Dream in East St. Louis 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. In August she was awarded a bachelor's degree, a Ph.B., bachelor of philosophy, with her principal area of study being social anthropology. 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. Katherine Mary Dunham was born in Chicago in 1909. During this time, she developed a warm friendship with the psychologist and philosopher Erich Fromm, whom she had known in Europe. Katherine Dunham - IMDb Dunham Technique was created by Katherine Dunham, a legend in the worlds of dance and anthropology. After her company performed successfully, Dunham was chosen as dance director of the Chicago Negro Theater Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. 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. Over the years Katherine Dunham has received scores of special awards, including more than a dozen honorary doctorates from various American universities. She . She was also consulted on costuming for the Egyptian and Ethiopian dress. She directed the Katherine Dunham School of Dance in New York, and was artist-in-residence at Southern Illinois University. Katherine Dunham: Dance and the African Diaspora - Goodreads She wanted to know not only how people danced but why they dance. She was the recipient of a Kennedy Center Honors Award, the Plaque d'Honneur Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce Award, and a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.